Twists and Turns
by BizzyLizy
Summary: What do you get when you have a girl who insists on wearing a hoodie, a boy with shark teeth, a teenager from an almost extinct clan, an incredibly innocent boy, a grouchy old man, and a sarcastic assassin? Chaos. Absolute chaos.
1. Let's X Go X Fishing!

**[A/n]: Alright! First chapter updated! It hasn't really changed much, haha... Anyway, there will be more changes in the other chapters and the general plot I was planning, so I hope you enjoy!**

 _Chapter One_

 _Let's X Go X Fishing!_

 _XXX_

Raze swung her little plastic bag filled with snacks gently in her hand, humming happily as she walked back to the ship taking her to the Dolle Harbour. _If only I didn't have to wear these stupid thing,_ She thought, referring to her black hoodie. _It's really stuffy when I have to wear the hood up all day. I wish I could have some sunlight,_ She thought wistfully to herself, looking up at the bright blue sky over Whale Island.

A few minutes later, she reached the ship and climbed aboard, saluting a few kind looking sailors who walked past. _Oh, there's more people on here than when I left…_ She mused, scanning the decks. _That blond guy, that old guy reading a porn magazine… Ew… Annnnnnnd a bunch of scary looking people. Great._ She looked for a place to sit on the crowded ship, but couldn't find any.

She climbed up the stairs and shuffled over to the 'new' blond boy, who was looked like he was probably around her age.

"Excuse me," Raze started somewhat nervously, the silver eyed teen looking up from his book. "May I sit next to you? There's nowhere else to sit except in the centre of the boat." He regarded her for a moment, before shifting slightly to the left to make room.

"Sure." He agreed, a small, polite smile on his face. "It's very crowded up here, isn't it?" She sat down next to him and smiled as well.

"Yeah, I only left for around half an hour to get snacks, but there's already so many people." She commented, holding up her bag. She rummaged through it, searching for water and pulled a metal container out, holding it out to him. "Want one?" She paused. "Oh, right, my name's Raze! Nice to meet you!" She grinned at him, earning a more genuine smile from him as well.

"Kurapika." He took the drink from her hand, and placed it down next to him. "Thanks." She watched him for a second before asking him a question.

"How old are you?"

"Seventeen, why?" She frowned slightly, looking disappointed.

"Darn. You're older than me." He let out an amused chuckle.

"And how old are you, Raze-san?"

"Fifteen." She sighed, tugging her hood lower, not catching his curious glance. "I wish I brought a book with me, I left all of them at home."

"I have a few, if you want to borrow them during the ride." He offered, gesturing the books piled beside him. Her eyes lit up, and she stared at him in awe.

"Really!?" She exclaimed excitedly. "You're awesome, Kurapika-san! Oh, and you can just call me Raze." She added in afterthought. "I'm fighting the urge to hug you right now." He chuckled again, shaking his head.

"You're an interesting person, Raze. You may call me Kurapika as well." He replied, opening the water bottle, and taking a sip. She gave him a sheepish laugh, toying with the lid of her own drink.

"My friend always tells me I'm too friendly, so sorry if I kinda freaked you out there." She apologized embarrassedly.

"No, in fact, your company is quite welcome, especially if you enjoy reading as well." He reassured her. "I always feel disappointed at the lack of people who are literate." He explained, pushing a lock of his blond hair back behind his ear. _He has long hair, for most boys._ She noted. Kurapika stared at her, looking questioning. "Why are you wearing a hood, when we have such nice weather today?" He asked. "It must be very hot under that." Raze tilted her head and put a finger to her lips.

"It's a secret~!" She chirped childishly, grinning at him. He raised an eyebrow, but didn't question it.

XXX

The ship raised its sails, townspeople crowding around the harbour to get a glimpse of the boat.

"Nee, nee, look Kurapika!" I looked over the edge of the boat, pointing at the villagers. "There're a ton of people coming to wave the ship off!" He stood up and looked over his shoulder at my finger, only to go back to his book.

"Yes, there are quite a few, aren't there?" His lack of enthusiasm made me groan, but I kept watching them.

"Oh, they're all waving to someone." I continued, pretending that he was listening.

 _"Good luck!"_

 _"Knock'em dead!"_ They shouted, most likely at the black haired boy who was running across the deck to stay in view. After we left their view, he leaned over even further and kept waving.

"I'm going to become the best Hunter in the world!" He shouted back at them, though I doubt they heard him. "Once I'm the best Hunter in the world, I'll come back!" I winced. _That'll take a lot of time, little buddy._ When I sat down back next to Kurapika, who continued standing, I heard some men snickering.

"The best Hunter in the world?" One of them scoffed to his friend. "Kid doesn't respect us."

"And why would he?" I growled under my breath, catching my new companion's attention. "You're just a bunch of lowlives who's bark is worse than their bite!" He quietly placed a hand on my shoulder, indirectly telling me not to intervene, still looking out at the ocean surrounding us. I glared at them, although they didn't notice.

"Every year, there are millions of skilled applicants for the Hunter Exam." Another said loudly, aiming it at the boy.

"Yeah, and you're not one of them." I muttered, and the blond sent me an amused glance at my retorts.

"But only a handful are selected. Don't say things that you can't back up, _boy."_ They all laughed at him, but he looked unperturbed, and walked past them to the railing. I sighed, and sat on the edge of the boat, and Kurapika gave me a vaguely concerned look.

"Be careful. The boat rocks suddenly." He cautioned, making me grin.

"Yeah, mom," I grinned at him. "Don't worry, I've been on boats before, I know how they work. Besides," I hooked my legs under the railings and let myself fall back, with a gasp from Kurapika. "I can just do this!" He grabbed my arm and pulled me up quickly, swatting my forehead.

"That's dangerous." He scolded, surprising me. "Be more careful with yourself." I was about to respond, when the seagulls grew louder, grabbing my attention. I stared up at them, and sniffed the air. "Raze?" I looked at Kurapika seriously.

"There's a storm coming." He frowned, not taking me seriously.

"What do you mean?" I shifted edgily.

"In my home country, when the air smells sweet, it usually means that's about to rain. The wind changed direction suddenly too, which mean it'll probably be bigger than your average storm." I explained. "And look up at the birds. They're getting louder and more rowdy, right?" He nodded, understanding where I was going with this.

"They're warning each other."

"Exactly. I knew I liked you." He scrutinized me thoughtfully. "Well, I'm all for learning but maybe we should go inside, because, you know, there's a storm coming?" Kurapika ran a hand through his hair, then stooped to pick up his bag.

"I agree, we should probably head inside." He started towards the stairs when I noticed the little black haired boy staring at me. _I wonder if he's figured it out._ I gave him a small one handed wave, getting a large smile and a big wave back from him. _Cute._

XXX

The storm was shaking the ship violently, but Kurapika didn't seem to care. I sat down beside him, as he swung in the hammock. He offered it to me first, but I let him have it after I messed around on it.

 _XXX_

 _Raze's eyes widened when she saw the hammock, bouncing over to it excitedly._

 _"Kurapika!" She called. "Look at this!" He entered the room at a much slower pace than she did, walking over to her calmly. "This is a hammock, right?"_

 _"Yes, it is. Haven't you ever seen one before?" He questioned, watching her. She shook her head no, poking it._

 _"How do you get on?" Kurapika placed down his bag and showed her, pulling the fabric underneath him to sit on it, and slowly shifting to a lying down position. She 'ohhh'ed as he got off again, her excitement at everything amusing him._

 _It took Raze a few tries before she could get on, and she gripped the fabric when it started to swing. "This is so cool!" She beamed, trying to get it to swing more. Humouring her, he pushed her gently and made her laugh. Eventually, Raze got off and offered it to him. "I'm more of a solid ground person, anyway." She smiled at him. "Thanks for letting me goof around, Kurapika."_

 _XXX_

I blushed a little, realizing how immature I was acting. I was lucky that I met up with Kurapika, who put up with my silliness.

The hammock swung surprisingly low since the silver eyed boy was almost at the same height as my face. I stretched and yawned, rubbing my eyes. It'd been a long day, especially without my best friend, who I agreed to meet up with at the site.

 _I hope he's okay, and that he's making his way there._ My brows furrowed as I worried. _This is the first time in years we've been apart for more than a few hours._ During my musings, I didn't notice Kurapika roll onto his side and stare at me. _I should've gotten a cellphone before we left, but I never thought that I would need one-_ I looked to my left and jumped, not expecting my new friend's face to be right beside me.

"You're wearing glasses," He hummed, taking a good look at my face while I blushed and tried to calm down my heart. "And you have brown hair and black eyes." He observed.

"There was a reason I was wearing a hood." I sulked, still blushing from embarrassment and he gave me a half grin.

"Do a better job of hiding it, then." He replied cheekily, and I gaped at him indignantly.

"I take back what I thought before," I teased. "I guess you're not as stiff as I thought." He chuckled, his eyes not leaving mine.

"Respect your elders," He joked, loosening up with me. "I've gone along with your shenanigans, have I not?" The boat rocked violently out of nowhere, making me bump into him.

"Ow," I groaned, rubbing my head. The hit was dulled my my hood, but it still left a sharp pain. "Stupid waves." I turned back to him, wincing. "Sorry." I apologized, seeing him rub his forehead.

"It's fine, it's not your fault. Those waves are really something, huh?" I nodded, pulling out a small bag which had survived the trip downstairs. "Are those gummy bears? You're going to get sick if you eat something while the boat is rocking like this." He warned, eyeing the bag. I blinked.

"Gummy _what_?" He looked at me weird.

"Gummy bears," He repeated slowly. A picture of old bears with no teeth invaded my mind. "Why do I get the feeling you're imagining something strange?"

"Because you're right."

"Great." He rolled back on his back, and returned to his book. "Let me know if you need anything."

"That's my line. I'm the one with the food!" I sneezed loudly at the end of my sentence, drawing attention to myself.

"Bless you!" Someone chirped from the other side of the room. _Ah, it's the boy from earlier._ He trotted over, holding a weird plant in his hand. "Do you have allergies?" I shrugged.

"No idea," I responded slowly, not sure why he was asking. "I've been sneezing a lot lately, though." He giggled and held out the weird looking plant to me, waiting expectantly. I took it and sniffed it, but it didn't seem poisonous.

"What is it?" The black haired boy grinned at me.

"An allergy herb! It makes most of the sneezing and stuffy noses disappear!" I stared at it skeptically. He seemed honest, and pretty naïve too, I didn't think that he would try to trick me.

"Do I just eat it?" I queried, pulling my hood down again.

"Yup!" I placed the plant in my mouth and chewed it, making a face at the unknown taste. "Sorry, it's pretty bitter at the start but it should start working soon." _Could've warned me sooner._ I grumbled internally, but he was right. Not even five minutes later, my stuffy nose from sneezing was gone, along with any other things I didn't notice before.

"What's your name, kiddo?" He giggled at the nickname I gave him.

"I'm Gon!" He introduced, pointing to himself cheerfully. "I'm from Whale Island."

"I know." His eyes widened even more, making him look like a large puppy.

"How did you know?" He sniffed the air, puzzling me. "I don't recognize you from Whale Island, and you don't smell like you've ever come here." That piqued my interest, and I sat up straight.

"Smell?" He blushed a little, and rubbed the back of his neck with his hand sheepishly.

"I've always lived in the mountains, so my senses are stronger than most people." I grinned happily at him.

"Well, we're very similar, then!" I declared, getting up. "I lived in nature as well, a different place from you, obviously, but I could probably track someone." I frowned lightly. "My eyesight and taste aren't the best, but I'm pretty observant most of the time." _At least, I'd like to think so._

"Really?" He bounced on the balls of his feet, gripping the straps of his backpack. "That's so cool!" I sniffed the air, paying attention to the different smells. _Vomit, yuck._ I wrinkled my nose a bit, but moved closer to Gon.

"You smell like…" I took another sniff. "Grass, trees, the sea, animals, smoke, and… Homemade food?" I wasn't sure about the last one.

"Wow! You got it all right!" He cheered, looking at me with amazement shining in his eyes. _Dear lord, he's just like my little brother._ My heart ached, but I pushed it away, shoving it into the depths of my mind. "Now it's my turn!"

"Eh?" He came closer, closing him eyes to focus on the smell.

"Hmm, smells like… fruit, animals, and spices?" He looked at me for confirmation.

"Right on." I praised, tousling his gravity defying spiky hair. "Sounds about right. My friend smells like spices, and I'm always around him, so that's why I smell like him."

"Who's your friend?" He looked around, them gestured to Kurapika. "Him? He doesn't smell like spices." Kurapika's eyes flicked over to us, then he went back into his own little world.

"No, not him. I just met Mr. Bookworm over there, although I'm pretty sure we're friends now." I waved my hands back and forth. "My best friend, Red, is meeting me at the exam site." Gon looked perplexed.

"But if you're always together, why are you coming separately?" I twitched. _This kid is more perceptive than I thought._

"It's a long story." I answered vaguely, not really answering his question.

"Oh." He looked a bit disappointed that I wasn't telling him everything, but gave me a charming grin. "Do you want to help me help the other passengers?"

XXX

The captain walked down the hallway, avoiding the fallen Exam applicants and any vomit that might've been in his way.

"Damn, this is one lousy crew." He scoffed, hands in his pocket. He opened the room where the applicants were supposed to wait, only to find a load of groaning men lying in dog piles around the room. "Not a one of them can stand. Pathetic." He spat. "And they're supposed to be taking the Hunter Examination." He rubbed his forehead. "What a laugh!"

"Here are some herbs." A young boy's voice rang out through the pitiful whines of the grown men. Gon sat next to a man who was leaning on a pillar, an older looking teen behind him. He handed the man the herbs gently, placing them in his hands. "If you chew them, you'll feel a bit better."

"W-Water…" The man choked out, saliva dripping down his jaw.

"It'll be here in a minute." The person behind Gon assured softly, kneeling down to help him with the herbs. "It's coming, so hang on."

"That boy…" The captain murmured, eyeing the hooded teen as well. The hammock to their left creaked quietly, prompting the captain to take a look.

In the hammock was a blond haired boy, legs crossed and reading a book. The captain hummed in interest, but looked in another direction when someone screeched.

"Uhyuu!" The man in a suit made a funny face, sitting in front of his briefcase. "This is one _sour_ apple." He sized it up with a wary glance. _I see,_ the captain smirked, chewing on his pipe. _There are a few tough nuts on board._ Behind him, the sound of footsteps coming closer could be heard and Katsuo burst through the doorway.

"Excuse me, pardon me!" He yelped, rushing past the captain and knocking him off balance, carrying a cup of water. Gon and Raze looked up expectantly at him. "H-Here is your water!" He cried, carefully handing it to Gon, who in turn handed it to Raze.

"Arigato!" Gon turned to the sick man, and Raze lifted the cup to his mouth, slowly tipping in the water. "Now, drink your fill."

"It's not good to drink water quickly when you're sick, so take it easy, okay?" The man kept drinking from her hand, taking it from her when he was strong enough. The captain made an approving noise at Katsuo and the group. Kurapika looked up from his book and watched them silently, along with the man who was wearing the suit.

"Thanks, we really appreciate it, Katsuo-san!" Gon handed the cup back to the scrawny sailor, who smiled back. Raze nodded.

"Really, you were a big help!" Her smile was visible underneath the shadows of the hood, and it was contagious, as was Gon's.

XXX

The storm had calmed a bit, not rocking the ship as violently as before but still bashing the wooden walls. The captain had gathered those of us who were still standing, and obviously, not sick. Beside me were Gon, Kurapika, and a little to my left was the old man from before. _Actually, his body doesn't look like someone that old._ I scrutinized him, making him nervous. _He's probably still a teenager._ Katsuo, the person from before, was writing things down on a clip board, while the rest of the crew busied themselves with other duties. The captain was the one to break the silence.

"So, what're your names?" Gon raised his hand excitedly, like a little kid in the classroom.

"I'm Gon!" Kurapika replied as well, although much less enthusiastically.

"I'm Kurapika." The black haired man wearing sunglasses scowled.

"It's Leorio." I waved at the captain, having already introduced myself to him when I originally boarded the ship.

"You've already met me, but I'm Raze." He gave me an approving nod, chewing on his pipe.

"Why do you want to become Hunters?" He asked calmly. Leorio aggressively waved his arm at the captain, taking a step forward.

"Hey!" He shouted. "If you're not an examiner, you can't boss us around!" I snorted, getting a glare from him. "What's so funny, kid?" The white haired man rolled his eyes.

"Just answer the question." The youngest in our group faced the elder.

"My dad is a Hunter," Gon complied, but what he said seemed to startle the captain. _Interesting… I thought he was a bit different._ "I left Whale Island because I want to know why my dad wanted to be a hunter so much." He clenched a fist in front of him with determination. I tousled his hair again, which he seemed to find funny.

"Hey, kid!" Leorio snapped.

"Eh?"

"You're not supposed to answer his question." He leaned down, towering over the youth and the rest of us as well.

"Why can't I tell him why I'm here?"

"Not a team player, huh?" He said condescendingly, making me want to whack him for being so rude to poor, sweet Gon. Leorio placed a finger on the doe eyed boy's forehead, pushing him back. "I don't wish to reveal why I'm here."

"I agree with Leorio." Kurapika commented from beside me.

"What?" The suit wearing man growled. "Aren't you younger than me?" He waved a finger in Kurapika's - no, _my face_ since I was the same height, and standing right next to him. I swatted his hand away, annoyed. "Show some respect!"

"Show some first, because someone's age should have nothing to do with it." I retorted, getting irritated at his antics. "Being rude to someone because they're younger is no excuse." Leorio stammered, flustered.

"Yeah, well-" Kurapika ignored our little spat and continued.

"It's quite simple to avoid pesky questions by offering a plausible lie." I nodded in agreement.

"And as long as you're not a bad liar, they would never know."

"Oi, are you listening to me?!" Leorio raged, stomping his foot on the ground.

"Obviously not." I quipped, obviously enjoying his frustration.

"However, it is quite shameful to rely on deceit." Kurapika's brows furrowed. "That said, if I were to tell you the truth," He gripped his tabard, hand over his heart. "I would be exposing my deepest secrets. That is why I cannot provide an answer." He explained, dropping his hand.

"Hey, you… Don't ignore me!" Leorio stepped closer angrily. I rolled my eyes and raised a hand.

"As for me, I'd like to be able to get away with certain… Things… And travel around the world with my friend." I smiled impishly, not giving him a full answer. _Well, it's not a lie; but, it's not the full truth either._ The captain looked satisfied.

"In other words, you two refuse to answer my question." He surmised, turning to his employee. "Oi, Katsuo."

"Y-Yes?" He stood up straight as I wrapped my arms around Gon. He looked up at me with his big brown eyes and smiled cutely at me.

"Tell the Examination board that we have two more dropouts." Kurapika and Leorio stopped arguing, and returned to the conversation.

"What do you mean?" Leorio asked.

"Haven't you figured it out?" I grinned and chorused along with the captain.

 **"The Hunter Exam has already begun."**

 **"What?"** The boys exclaimed, Kurapika turning to me. "Raze, did you already…?" I winked at him.

"Think about it," I told him, placing my head on Gon's. "There are millions of applicants, and even if they weren't that tough, a hacker could _easily_ find out where the place is or pay bribe someone for information." I spread my hands in a shrugging gesture. "So, what do they do? Place little tests and traps along the way to weed out the weak willed ones." The captain put his hands in his pocket, not fazed when the ship started to rock again.

"Correct. As the boy said, there are as many Hunter wannabes as there are stars in the sky. The Hunter examination board doesn't have the time of the resources to review them all." He informed us. "So, they hire people like us, to trim the fat." He motioned towards his crew. "I've already notified the board that everyone else on the ship had to withdraw." I whistled.

"That's a lot of people."

"If they couldn't handle a little storm, they'd stand no chance in the Hunter Exam's later stages." _I bet he's a hunter too._ "In other words, you only proceed to the Exam if I pass you. Think carefully before you answer my question." There was a short silence before the youngest spoke.

"So he says." _Gon's so cute._ I squeezed him.

"Should've said so sooner…" Leorio huffed, and Kurapika closed his eyes. I let go of Gon and whispered to him.

"You okay?" He gave me a small smile, then spoke.

"I am the last survivor of the Kurta Clan." He said softly. "Four years ago, my clan was annihilated by a band of criminals. I wish to become a Hunter and track down that band, the Phantom Troupe."

"So you want to become a bounty Hunter? The Phantom Troupe is an class-A bounty. Not even the most grizzled Hunters can touch them." He looked at Kurapika very seriously. "You'd be throwing away your life."

"I do not fear death." He stated, eyes closed. "I only fear that my rage will fade over time." I sucked in a gasp when his eyes glowed red, but quickly faded back to silver. I snuck a peek at Gon, who looked like he saw it too.

"In other words, you want revenge," Leorio concluded smugly. "Does that require you become a Hunter?" He questioned arrogantly.

"That's a stupid question." I deadpanned.

"That may be the stupidest question I've ever heard, Leorio." I bit my lip, trying not to laugh. A vein burst on the older male's forehead.

"That's Leorio- _san_ to you!" He screeched, raising a fist at the younger boy who completely ignored him.

"Places accessible only to Hunters…"

"Urk."

"Actions otherwise impossible…" Kurapika sighed mockingly. "There are more reasons than your brain could possibly handle." Steam came out of Leorio's nose, and he stomped his foot on the floor hard again.

"HEY!" I giggled, pushing up my glasses, not wanting to stop the fight because it looked like it would be fun. Sadly for me, Gon got in between them and delayed the inevitable.

"Nee!" He waved at the rude man. "Why do you want to be a Hunter, Leorio-san?" This appeared to mollify him a bit, being referred to with an honorific. I brushed the back of my hand against my new friend's hand wanting to give him a little bit of comfort. He nudged me back gently with his hand, in a way, telling me he was fine. _Man, only a few hours with this guy and we're like best buddies._ I thought, amused. _I know his darkest secret, he… doesn't know mine, but he put up with my crap, so it's all cool._

"Me?" Leorio pushed up his tiny sunglasses. "I'll make it short. I want money." He lifted himself excitedly, now yelling to the sky. "Money can buy you anything! A big house! A nice car!" He mimed holding a steering wheel. "Good liquor! Kahhh!"

"You can't buy class with money, Leorio." Kurapika interjected over my shoulder to the man.

"That's three times now." I raised my eyebrows. _Ohh, scary, he got quiet,_ I thought sarcastically. "Step outside," He ordered, walking to the stairwell. "I'll end the filthy Kurta bloodline right here and now."

"Take that back, Leorio!"

"That was completely uncalled for!" The black haired man paused at the doorway, Kurapika's face contorted into anger.

"Take that back." He repeated, growling. Leorio didn't face him, and somehow, I could sense that he almost regretted that comment.

"…That's Leorio-san to you." He walked out the door, Kurapika following close behind him. I sighed, running a hand through my short hair, almost knocking off my hood.

"Hey, boys! I'm not finished with you yet!" The captain bellowed, but Gon interrupted.

"Just let them go. Mito-san once told me…" He trailed off, obviously drifting into a memory only he could see. "It's important for them to understand why they're mad. So we should let them settle it themselves." He reasoned.

"As long as they don't kill each other or fall off the boat." I muttered. "You know, you're pretty smart for a kid, Gon." He grinned at the praise and turned back to the hallway, listening to their footsteps. I could hear the steady thumps of shoes against wood, and…

"Captain!" One of the sailors called. "L-Look!" He pointed outside the window. My eyes widened.

"Oh boy, that's not good." I breathed, calculating the size and power of it in my head vs the size of the ship. The sea was swirling around, the water pitch black. In front of us was a giant waterspout, spinning at a tremendous speed, heading upwards into the sky. Lightning lit up the sea for a moment, highlighting the already deadly winds and churning waves.

"If we get caught by that waterspout, the ship will sink!" Katsuo cried, hugging his clipboard tight to his body.

"…Lower the sails, now."

"Aye!" Gon turned to the scared looking sailor.

"I'll help too!"

"Me as well!" I added, stepping forward. "Just tell me what to do!"

"Yeah, come with me!" He smiled, slightly relieved that we were coming with him. We sprinted down the hallway, and the last thing I heard was the Captain saying,

"I'll take the helm."

XXX

 _"Hurry!"_

 _"The waterspout is gonna catch us!"_

I could hear the crew shouting various orders at each other, dashing across the ship for this and that. I was in a line of other people, manning a rope, attempting to pull down the sails. Gon was on the one next to me, pulling as hard as he could. I grunted, feeling the rope burn on my hands. _That's gonna hurt like hell tomorrow._ A sudden gust of wind threw us off balance for a moment, making a few of them lose their grip. _Damn, what the hell are they doing?_ I cursed, seeing Kurapika and Leorio have a stand off in the corner of my eye. A wave crashed over the back of the deck, and a couple sailors nearly fell off board.

"GODDAMN IT, KURAPIKA!" I screamed, taking my frustration out on the rope. "DEAL WITH YOUR STUPID FRAGILE MAN EGOS LATER, WHEN WE AREN'T ABOUT TO FLIPPING DIE!" I heard some nervous laughter to my right, where Gon was.

"Maa, maa. Just calm down, Raze-san, you can argue with them later!" My eye twitched. _Like hell._

"Calm down?! Calm down?! DON'T TELL ME TO CALM DOWN, I'LL THROW A FREAKING ANCOR AT YOUR FACE!" I shrieked, my nerves getting frayed from the tension of the situation. Did I mention I was absolutely terrified of falling in the ocean? "YOU GODDAMNED FREAKING TYPHOON, GO SPORK YOURSELF!" Yeeeep. I'm definitely calm. I'm so calm, look at me calming all over the place.

XXX

 _"YOU GODDAMNED TYPHOON, GO SPORK YOURSELF!"_ Despite the seriousness of the situation, both men couldn't help but let out a small laugh. _Of all the people I could've made acquaintances with, it had to be the insane one._ Kurapika thought, almost entertained at the notion, if not for the circumstances.

A huge wave crashed through the deck, but Kurapika didn't allow it to phase him.

"Take back what you said." He demanded, hair whipping around in the wind. "Take back your words and I'll forgive you, Leorio." The older male 'tch'ed.

"How many times must I repeat myself?" Leorio asked, raising his head cockily. "You should show me some respect. I won't back down." He warned, whipping out a knife, which, Kurapika noted, would be entirely ineffective against his weapons.

"Then I have no choice…" He muttered, pulling out his twin wooden swords form underneath his clothing. He held the weapons out in his hand, just as the wind blasted past again.

XXX

"Ugh!" I heard Gon grunt, trying to fight against the overwhelming force of the wind. It didn't work. His rope was sent flying into the air, but they all quickly let go of the rope so that they wouldn't be flung into the sea, which would shred them to pieces… Except for Katsuo.

Katsuo soared through the air, being the only one who didn't let go with the others. I followed his path with my eyes, feeling panic rise up into my throat.

 **"Katsuo-san!"** I shouted along with Gon, but I didn't stop to think about it. I sprinted dashed for the other side of the deck, hoping to make it. _Come on, please, let me get there!_ I pleaded.

He flew right past Kurapika and Leorio, who realized it a second too late. They jumped over the edge, one hand on the railing, but missed his hand by an inch.

"Damn it!" Kurapika cursed, but looked up at the sound of feet thudding quickly towards them. Gon leaped over the edge of the boat first, with me right by his heels. _Idiot!_

He latched onto Katsuo's arms, while I grabbed the boy's legs, hoping to the gods that the two boys were fast enough to catch us both and that lightning wouldn't strike. Luckily for the three of us, they were. They snatched my ankles, and managed to hold us up, out of the sea. Katsuo coughed when Gon pulled him out of the water, now unconscious.

"Pull 'em out! Now…" Leorio ordered as the rest of the crew came rushing over. I looked down at Gon and grinned. _Idiot,_ I groaned inwardly. _But, he's my kind of idiot._

XXX

Soon after that, the storm ended.

"YOU IDIOTS!" Leorio screeched, scaring the seagulls. _I wonder where they went while the storm was going on. Mainland? Or did they just fly around, dodging all the bad stuff? I'll have to ask one._ I decided, not paying attention to the conversation whatsoever. _The sky is very pretty too._ "AND YOU!" I looked over casually, stretching.

"Hmm?" I yawned. "What?"

"He's not even paying attention!" He exploded, looking furious. _I'm a gir- eh, whatever, doesn't really matter. I can be a guy._

"Woah, dude," I waved a hand at him, overly relaxed now that the threat was gone. "Take a chill pill." Kurapika sent me a disapproving stare.

"You could've been killed." He scolded, waving a finger at me. "Even if you did catch him, what would you have done if we weren't there?" I blinked.

"Uh, drown? Possibly climb back onto the ship, maybe toss those two back on the ship and then drown?" I answered thoughtfully, rubbing a hand against my chin. The blond sighed, running a hand through his hair.

"If we didn't grab your legs, you'd be shark bait now."

"Honestly," Kurapika looked away, shaking his head. "How reckless can you be?"

"Actually, sharks are very nice, and the only time they attack people is if they're in a frenzy or if they're scared." I countered. "Or if you look like a seal." I paused, musing to myself. "A lot of people look like seals underwater…" Leorio stared at me like I was insane.

"He's _nuts._ "

"No, I'm Raze. Didn't you hear my introduction earlier?"

"But, you did catch us." Gon pointed out, looking them in the eyes.

 **"Huh?"** Gon grinned at his two new friends.

"You both caught us!" The two males looked baffled, and at a loss for words.

"W-Well, I guess so…" Kurapika looked at me, and I gave him a charming grin.

"Gon!" Katsuo called, running up from below deck. Gon stood up from his spot on the floor.

"Katsuo-san!"

"Thank you, Gon!" He smiled gratefully at the boy, rubbing his neck sheepishly. "You saved my life."

"I couldn't have done it alone." Gon deflected, facing the rest of us. "These three helped save you too." I batted an eyelid. _Ara?_

 **"Huh?"** The sailor turned to us and bowed deeply, surprising us all.

"Thank you very much!" Kurapika looked up at the sky, not at the teen.

"No, you don't need to thank me…" Leorio grinned at the redhead, waving his hand in a shooing gesture.

"Well, I'm glad you're okay." He laughed, looking a touch embarrassed.

"Anytime~!" I chirped, giving him a thumbs up. I was just glad I didn't lose my glasses. Katsuo nodded thankfully at us, Leorio blushing a bit.

"Yeah! I'll be returning to my station!" Kurapika watched the older male thoughtfully, earning a nervous 'what?' from Leorio.

"I apologize for my rude behaviour." He give him a genuine smile, looking apologetic. "Sorry, Leorio-san."

"W-What's with the sudden change?" He stammered, leaning back. "We sound like strangers… Just call me Leorio… Leorio works." He looked away. "I'm also sorry. I take back everything I said. I was wrong."

"No, it's okay." I giggled and cooed at them.

"Awwww~" I tousled Gon's hair, which was probably going to become a habit. "You guys are cute."

"AHAHAHAHA!" Someone boomed from the doorway. I whipped around, covering my ears. _Ow. He's loooouud._ "I like you guys!" The captain declared, taking a swig of his alcohol. "Okay! I'll take responsibility for bringing you four to the port closest to the exam site." He proclaimed, moving to the stairs.

"Really? What about your test?"

"Like I said…It's my decision to make." He reminded us. "And all four of you pass!" The smile on my face grew and I almost thought it might split my face in half. I turned to Gon, and we shared the same smile.

 **"Yatta!"** We high fived, and I held my hand up to Kurapika with an expectant expression. He sighed, and gently placed his hand against mine. "Oh, c'mon, that was sad! Give me a real high five!" He rolled his eyes and slapped his hand against mine.

 _And so began our journey. It was quite a long one, and I can't say it wasn't hard… we did have our moments, but I wouldn't change any of it for the world._

XXX


	2. Test X Of X Tests

**[Kurapika]: Thanks to a scribble with fangs, steph557, FANFICTION5273, RedRaptor711, Happywheal, Arrow-chan3, AkiEn, a, Naruto namikaze uchiha, Crescentclaw, xXSpark and 74ThatOneBlondeOtaku52 for favouriting/following!**

 **[Gon]: Reviews!**

 **74ThatOneBlondeOtaku52: Blondes unite~!**

 **[Kurapika]: What**

 **I'm blonde too :) I'm glad you found it funny, there were a few parts that I put in there for fun. The writing should get better as I go on, because writing in HXH in different from the other fandom I'm working on. Here's your next chapter, hope you enjoy, and sorry for the late update!**

 **x4869 (Guest) : Yeah, there were originally more chapters but I decided that I didn't like where it was going and that Raze seemed kind of 2D. Thank you for the compliment and the review! I hope you enjoy the next chapter!**

 _Chapter two_

 _Test X Of X Tests_

XXX

I darted down the ramp to the ground, happy to be on mainland. It had only taken around a day to reach Dolle Harbour, which was pretty busy. I scanned the crowd, seeing quite a few muscly guys with giant swords. Speaking of weapons, I retrieved mine from the storage compartment of the ship, along with my small backpack. I had my knives underneath my clothes the whole time, though.

 _Holy crabs, there are a lot of people,_ I gaped at the large crowd, taking in the different colours and smells I wasn't accustomed to. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a flash of violet, making me whip my head to the left to look. _It can't be…_ I felt the smile on my face widening as Kurapika and Leorio came up beside me.

"Raze?" Kurapika asked, nudging my arm. "What are you grinning at?" He let out a gasp of surprise when I knocked him off balance as I dashed through the crowd, mumbling apologies as I went through. _That hair, it has to be…!_

"HIROSHI!" I screamed happily, throwing myself at him. He quickly turned around, a shocked expression on his face when he saw me hurtling towards him

"Ra-woah!" He yelped, trying to stabilize us, but fell to the ground after I tackled him. I squeezed him tightly, not caring that we were on the ground. He laughed, hugging me back. "It's nice to see you too, Raze." I paused in realization, then whispered quickly into his ear.

"I have people with me." He nodded and groaned.

"Could you get off me now? We're sitting on the ground, you know." I laughed, and rolled off him, letting him sit up. "Now, what's this about people?"

"Raze!" Kurapika called over the noise of the bustling activities, Leorio and Gon on his heels as he made his way through the crowd. He reached us as I stood up, and pulled Hiroshi up as well. "Who is that?" He inquired, gesturing to the golden eyed boy beside me. I grinned and hugged Hiroshi again.

"This is Hiroshi, my best friend who I was talking about earlier!" I explained, introducing him to the group. Gon made a surprised noise.

"The one that smells like spices!" Hiroshi gave me a weird look and I laughed.

"Yeah, the one that smells like spices." I let go of Hiroshi, jostling his katana at his waist, and pulled out a hard candy. "Eh, Leorio, you missed this, right? He's going to the Hunter Exam too, so he can come with us, ne?" The black haired man eyed his sharp-toothed grin suspiciously, holding his briefcase in his hand.

"And how do we know he's not going to sabotage us?" I gave an overdramatic sigh and rolled my eyes, placing the candy in my mouth.

"I'm rolling my eyes, Leorio, I'm rolling my eyes," I told him, remembering that I was wearing a hood and he was much taller. Gon giggled, watching us from behind.

"Come to think of it, how do we know that _you're_ not going to sabotage us?" He questioned, leaning forward. _Damn, he's paranoid. I thought I was bad._ "You've always been wearing that hoodie, and we've never seen your face!"

"Actuallllllyyyyyy," I drawled, crunching on the candy I pulled out. "Pikachu here has seen my face, Gon probably has because he's shorter than me," I pointed at Kurapika who looked puzzled. "And I can show you my face if you want. It's not that big of a deal."

"Pikachu?"

"Besides, why would I want to sabotage you?" I pretended not to hear the blond's comment. "You haven't done anything to annoy me other than trying to murder people during a typhoon."

"I wasn't going to murder him!" Leorio shook his head exasperatedly. "At least you're weak enough that we could fight you off." Hiroshi chuckled at that.

"…" I sent him a glare, not wanting to start another fight. "I bet I could knock you over with my pinkie." Too late.

"Why you-!"

"I'm Hiroshi, one of Raze's best friends. Nice to meet you." Hiroshi completely cut off Leorio - which seemed to be becoming a trend recently- and bowed politely to the others.

"I'm Gon!" He bounced up to the teen happily. "I've heard about you!" Hiroshi raised his eyebrows, but didn't say anything. The blond boy looked at me curiously for a moment, before introducing himself.

"I'm Kurapika."

"The name's Leorio." The black haired man complied, jerking a thumb towards his face. "What did you mean by ' _one'_?" He asked, slouching over to get a better look. "I can't imagine this squirt having more than one friend." My eye twitched.

"Watch it, old man."

"Ne, Hiroshi-san?" The violet haired boy glanced at the shortest of the group.

"Just call me Hiroshi, please," Gon grinned at his offer.

"Okay! Hiroshi, why do you have those lines on your neck?" He blinked, then chuckled at the question.

"I'm from a small clan in the Phoenix kingdom where we are blessed by the gods with the traits of non-human creatures." He explained clearly, pointing to his sharp, triangular teeth and more animalistic looking eyes. "I'm more like a shark, while others in my clan have traits from cats, plants, foxes, fish, crocodiles, etc." Gon looked at him in awe. "I'm a disciple of the god _Pistris."_

"In other words, he was gills," I translated amusedly.

"That's so cool!"

"Intriguing." Kurapika murmured. "What is the name of your clan?"

"Nakamura," He answered slowly. "The Nakamura clan of the east." The blond hummed curiously before Hiroshi continued, not waiting for another question. "We should probably head over to the bus, if that's the way you've planned on going, Raze."

"Bus?"

XXX

"Huh… That's strange." Leorio commented absently to himself while looking at the map in front of the nice looking cafe. Gon faced him with a frown.

"Why?"

"Well, according to the notice I received," He bent down a little to show us his note, "The Exam is supposedly being held in Zaban City." I glanced at Hiroshi who nodded in agreement, fiddling with the ornament in his purple hair. "Right now, we're here." Leorio pointed to the white box labeled "Dolle" and moved his finger upwards to the tree, then to the right. "That tree is in the opposite direction."

"It's closer to perpendicular, really…" I muttered under my breath. I had some pressing questions for Hiroshi that I wanted to ask but I couldn't with those three around.

"Perhaps you misheard him?" Kurapika mused, looking at Gon. I placed a hand on my chin.

"I doubt it. Gon is pretty much a super-human," I interjected, getting a strange look from Kurapika.

"He looks human to me."

"No, he told me to head toward that cedar tree," Gon continued, as if our side conversation had never existed.

"I see…"

"And this notice isn't any help!" Leorio growled, crumpling it in his fist. "Where, exactly, in Zaban city are we meant to go?"

"It won't be any help at all if you crumple it up like that." I got a cold glare from the older male and I raised my hands up in front of me. "Chill out, it was only a suggestion."

"Our task is to find the exam site using a limited amount of information," Kurapika informed us, arms crossed. "Just another test before we'll be allowed to enter the Hunter Exam."

"If you can't even do that, you're obviously not even worthy of becoming a Hunter," Hiroshi added coolly, now bored with the conversation.

"I-I knew that…" Leorio stammered embarrassedly, putting up a show of feigned annoyance.

"Anyways, I'll go have a look." Gon decided, brown eyes shining with determination, starting to walk off, with me on his heels. "The captain must've had a reason to suggest that." Hiroshi followed behind me without a word, obviously glad to get out of the city. I found it fascinating and Hiroshi had to drag me away from several stores.

"Hey, hey, you're serious?" The suit wearing male groaned in exasperation, pointing behind him. "The bus to Zaban is about to leave," _Idiot. As if it'd be that easy. If you could get there without that much hassle it wouldn't be an Exam!_ "We should just take it!" Gon just waved at them without looking back, making me chuckle. I turned partially and waved to Kurapika who I'd grown to like. I made a "come here" gesture with my hand and he raised an eyebrow. "Oi!" I turned back around, figuring that he wouldn't want to be alone with Leorio the entire trip. "He's got to learn that you can't trust everyone," I heard Leorio grumble. Unfortunately, that was as far as my hearing went in that busy place, considering that we were now almost completely down the street.

We walked along for awhile longer and Gon kept pestering Hiroshi to let him touch his gills when Kurapika showed up- and Hiroshi relented, much to my amusement.

"Oh, Kurapika. I figured you'd join us soon." I sort-of greeted, watching Gon touch the slits in Hiroshi's skin in awe out of the cover of my eye. "What took you so long?"

"I felt there was no need to catch up right away as we were going in the same direction anyway."

"I see." We walked in a comfortable silence for awhile, with the exception of Gon continuously asking Hiroshi random questions about back home.

"So, if you and Raze are best friends, is he a… Nakamuru thing too?"

" _Nakamura._ " Hiroshi corrected gently. "And no, Raze is not. However, she did live nearby, and she stayed with my clan for the past few years, resulting in her heightened senses."

"Heeeh?" Gon made a noise of interest. "Where did you live?"

"The Shini Forest."

"Where's that?"

"In the kingdom of Phoenix."

"What's the kingdom of Phoenix?" Hiroshi let out an exasperated sigh, running a hand through his hair while Kurapika and I laughed.

"Dear lord, it's like seven-year-old Raze all over again."

"Wait- did you say she?" Kurapika interjected, slowly realizing what Hiroshi said, staring at my face. He scrutinized my features carefully.

"Yep," I said, adjusting the straps on my bag so that they were evenly weighted. "One hundred percent female."

"And you didn't correct us?"

"Y'know, male, female, neither, both, whatever," I waved my hand lazily. "Doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things."

XXX

About half an hour later, Leorio caught up to us, spewing nonsense about how we would be lonely without us. We continued to walk up a steep hill, with me giving Gon a piggyback ride at one point.

" _SO_ , I decided to stick with you guys a while longer!" Leorio erupted into nervous laughter, prompting me to turn with a blank face.

"Eh? Were you saying something, Leo?" His eyebrow twitched in anger as the others tried not to get themselves involved in the argument.

"You little-" He paused after a moment, letting what I said process. "Did you just call me Leo?"

"Yeah?"

"Oh." He was quiet for a moment. "Why are you calling me an Leo?"

"Because…" I trailed off, noticing something behind Leorio. _I already knew someone was following us, but he's really awful at this whole stalking thing. Maybe he's new, because_ ** _I'm at least_** **_3%_** **_certain_** _that your targets_ ** _aren't_** _supposed to know you're there. Or be able to see you._ I stared directly at him, over Leorio's shoulder.

"Oi, brat." He walked closer but I didn't acknowledge him. "Brat." He poked my forehead, and his face of irritation became one of slight concern. "You okay there?" I looked down and didn't say anything. "Oi, what's wrong?" The others paused, and I could hear Hiroshi take a few steps back. I looked up at him blankly.

"Your glasses are really tiny."

"You-!"

"Let's go!" I cheered, jogging ahead to the front group to avoid Leorio's wrath, leaving Hiroshi and Gon to calm him down. Actually, scratch that, just Gon. Hiroshi really wouldn't care enough to try.

Kurapika shifted his bag to his other shoulder with a sigh, catching my attention.

"Getting tired?" I tugged my hood lower on my head, still ignoring Leorio who was shouting behind us. The silver-eyed boy shook his head, the sunlight shining off of his hair.

"I'm fine."

XXX

The wind whistled gently as we walked into the rundown looking town. There was clothing hanging across the dirt roads, and I could hear some shuffling around in the houses. It was a pretty place but I didn't have the time to admire the brickwork.

 _Suspicious…_ I thought to myself, slipping a hand into my pockets where my knives were hidden. _I'd better keep an eye out. I'd rather not have my new friends skewered._ I smiled dryly, using my other hand to tug my hood lower again. It shifted a lot and it was getting pretty annoying. _Note to self, buy new hoodie soon or steal one of Hiroshi's._

A screeching crow made Leorio jump.

"What a creepy place…" He shuddered, holding his briefcase close as he walked behind us, next to Hiroshi. He preferred to stay behind so that he could deal with any sneak attacks, while I preferred to take them head on or be able to move forward. I was a stealth and speed type person, although my pain tolerance was above normal human level. My strength was absolute crap by my village's standards.

 _Then again,_ I mused, glancing at the crow who was probably signaling someone, seeing as it was the only bird and I could hear a lot more movement now, _I have nothing to base off of normal humans. For all I know, I could be one of the weakest people in the world._

"I don't see a single person." I snickered.

"Yes, you can't _see_ a single person." I said, putting emphasis on the 'see'. He gave me a confused face.

"But there are plenty here." Gon informed him, looking around as well. Kurapika spared an interested glance at me, before looking at the wooden doors that were on either side of the path.

"W-What?" Leorio stammered just as the doors opened, revealing people in loose robes with wild hair colours pulling a wooden stage across the path. They all wore white masks as well, and the only one who looked relatively normal was the old woman sitting on the centre of the stage. "W-What's with this freak show?" They all had something in their hands, be it the crow which fluttered down - _I was right! -_ or an instrument of some kind.

"Doki-Doki…" The woman on the stage murmured quietly, lacing her fingers and laying her head on them.

"D-Doki Doki?" Leorio parroted. _He stutters a lot,_ I noted inwardly.

"Doki doki."

"Doki doki…" Leorio swallowed the lump in his throat nervously as Hiroshi walked up beside me and rolled his eyes. The woman suddenly opened her eyes ridiculously wide and slammed her hands on the stage.

"EXCITING TWO CHOICE QUIZ!" The group of people behind her started to play their instruments at random, the crow joining in as well. _Oh god, the inner musician in me is cringing._ The boys behind me all went blank, their faces stuck in completely baffled expressions. "You… boys… are headed for that tree on the hill, correct?" She eyed me on the word 'boys', making me edgy. "To reach that tree, you must pass through this town."

"Eh?"

"I shall administer a single question quiz."

"H-Hold on!" Leorio interrupted. "What's going on here?"

"You'll have five seconds to state your answer." The lady continued calmly. "If you give the wrong answer, you'll be disqualified." She looked up at us, staring each one of us in the eye. "You'll have to give up on taking this year's Hunter Exam," Kurapika smiled at the challenge.

"I see. Then this is part of the Hunter Exam."

 _"Noooo,_ it's just a random lady in a town forcing people to stay in their houses during the Exam period and making people quit if they fail her quiz, Kurapika." I broke in sarcastically.

"Was that really necessary?" Kurapika sighed, and I slipped over to his side, giving him a sweet smile.

"A sarcastic response is always necessary, my dear Pika!"

"Haven't you only known him for around a week?" Leorio wondered. "You're pretty familiar for only knowing him for such a short amount of time."

"Two days, actually. But it was meant to be!" Kurapika sweat dropped.

"What was? Meeting me?" I shook my head and posed dramatically, a mischievous grin on my face.

"You are destined to become my wi-phm!" My mouth was covered mid-sentence by my golden eyed best friend. I frowned and tried to pull his hand off but to no avail. He was several inches taller than me, and quite a bit stronger than me. I flailed around wildly, being careful not to hit the delicate Kurapika -he'd probably hit me if he heard me say that- or my hood, but in the end decided on licking his hand to get him to let go. He made a face and wiped off the spit on his pants.

"Really?"

"You put a hand in front of my face and I'll either lick to or bite it. You've been my best friend since we were born, you should know this by now."

"Ahem." The old woman cleared her throat loudly, trying to get our attention.

"Oh, sorry."

"As I said, I'll be asking a single question quiz," Leorio smirked and picked up his briefcase.

"I see how it is… I'll have you know that I'm a quiz master!"

"I doubt it." Hiroshi scoffed under his breath. He may seem polite and quiet, but he was rude to pretty much everyone except me.

"Wait, only one question?" Leorio exclaimed loudly, hurting my ears.

"Ow." The old woman held up her fingers.

"Your answer will either be one or two." She answered monotonously. "Any other answer will be considered incorrect." Leorio frowned.

"Hold on! all five of us share _one_ question?" He asked rudely, pointing a finger at our faces. "So if one of them answers incorrectly, I'm disqualified too?" Kurapika crossed his arms with a huff.

"As if that would happen. What scares me is the high likelihood of the opposite happening." Kurapika held his hands upwards in a sarcastic shrug and shook his head wearily, a smirk creeping over his face. My lips twitched upwards as I tried to hold in a laugh.

"What was that?!" Leorio's face twisted in rage as he clenched both fists, the final breaking point for me as the laughter bubbled out, startling the group.

"K-Kurapika… H-He!" I couldn't make out the rest of my sentence for a minute as I snorted. "He l-looked like a disappointed m-mother!" The satisfied look on the blond's face only made it harder for me to stop laughing.

"Oi, it wasn't that funny." An vein pulsed on Leorio's forehead. I waved him off, the aftershocks of giggles still coming. Gon giggled at me too before joining the conversation.

"But you know, this way's easier since only one of us needs to know the answer." He smiled sheepishly and rubbed the back of his neck. "I'm not good at quizzes."

"I suppose."

"Fair point."

"Oi, hurry it up there, hurry it up." A new voice called. "Or else I'll answer the question first."

"Stalker dude!" I called cheerfully, giving him a wave, much to his puzzlement. He seemed to think that I might've been angry.

"Who're you?"

 **"He followed us here all the way from the port,"** Gon, Hiroshi and I informed the older male in synch.

"Huh? Seriously?" _Of all things that he doesn't get mad about…_

"Sorry, kid. I happened to overhear your conversation." The old lady looked up at us.

"So, what are you going to do?" Kurapika looked back and forth between the speakers, but allowed me to pull him back to the side of the road.

"Well, he seems eager to take it. We should let him go first." Leorio announced. "That way we'll know what kind of question to expect."

"Not necessarily. She could have a whole bunch of random questions that differ from each other." Hiroshi reasoned.

"I don't mind." Gon tugged on the fifteen-year old's loose toga-like shirt. I looked at Kurapika who smiled at me in return.

"I have no objections." We moved again behind the stalker dude, who moved forward to stand at the podium thing that one of the old lady's minions pulled out.

"Then I'll get to it." He smirked at us as we walked past. _He's probably gonna set traps if he gets through._

"Here is your question." The crow cawed loudly as if to punctuate her pause. "Evil villains have captured your mother and lover. You can only save one." She raised a finger as the others in my group gasped. "Select one for your mother, or two for your lover." Her eyes opened in slits. "Which do you save?"

"How is this even a quiz?" Leorio growled. I clenched my fists as I felt my mood and my expression souring.

 _Ding!_

"The answer is one." He declared confidently. The old woman looked at him expressionlessly.

"Oh? Why do you say that?" She pressed boredly.

"Because you can't replace your mother. You can always get another lover." _Sick reasoning…_ The old woman pointed behind her with her thumb.

"You may pass." Leorio was just as about as impressed at I was, judging by the growl he gave to her.

"What?!" I kept my gaze steadily at the ground, not looking at the others.

"You just gotta tell the old lady what she wants to hear." The stalker whispered snarkily as he passed me, the words echoing clearly inside my brain. _How frighteningly similar are those words…?_

"Hey now, that's all bull!" Leorio shouted angrily, slashing his arm through the air. "How was that the right answer?!"

"Anything can be the right answer if you have proof to back it up," I mumbled bitterly, only Kurapika close enough to catch it.

"Raze?"

"We're supposed to give the old lady the answer she wants to hear?!" Gon crossed his arms and thought, looking at the ground while he thought. "And that's considered correct?! Hey, say something!" I stayed silent, Kurapika looking at me in concern, but I could still tell that the wheels in his brain were turning. "I won't put up with this sham. I'll find a different route." Leorio turned around and made to leave.

"It's too late. Refuse to take the quiz and you are disqualified."

"That's ridiculous! Different people would expect different answers!" His words made something click in my brain. _Different answers… Of course, people from different walks of life might not take lovers, or may not have mothers, or may have both but only love one of them… Wait, that means-!_ "There is no right answer!" Leorio shouted again, saying my thought out loud. I lifted my head sharply, and hear Kurapika gasp. _He has it too!_

"No right answer…" His eyes were as wide as mine when he looked at me. "I see!" I turned to the angered black haired male.

 **"Leorio!"**

"That's enough!" The old lady interrupted, holding her hand out to stop us. Her gaze was powerful, and it seemed as if she could see right through me, but I held it. "Not another word from you two. Say anything but the answer, and you're immediately disqualified." Leorio grit his teeth and looked the other way childishly. I shared a look with Hiroshi. I knew that he wouldn't say anything if I didn't. I wasn't worried about Gon either, he looked like he was too deep in thought to be concerned about what was going on. It was only Leorio who I was worried about. _As long as he stays quiet for five seconds, we're good._ I caught Kurapika looking at me with uncertainty. I gave him a cheesy grin and a thumbs up, to his relief. He gave me another small smile and squeezed my shoulder gently.

"Here is your question…" She started seriously. "Your son and daughter have been kidnapped. You can only rescue one. Select one for your son, two for your daughter." _Man, she only speaks in broken sentences._ "Which will you choose?" Leorio stalked off and grabbed a wooden stick from the side of the path.

"Five." I pushed up my glasses, which had fallen down my nose in the kerfuffle earlier. _Heh, kerfuffle. That's a funny word._ "Four." Already bored with waiting - patience really wasn't my strong suit at any point in my life - I poked Kurapika, getting a raised eyebrow in return. "Three." Leorio swung his stick downwards in a practice strike. "Two." _He better not be planning on attacking the poor old lady._ "One." I stepped out of the way for Kurapika. "Buuup! Time's up."

Leorio lunged at the woman by jumping into the air, doing some kind of war cry. Just as I anticipated, Kurapika moved quickly, drawing out his weapons and blocking his attack and shattering the stick. The old woman sat calmly through the commotion.

"Don't stop me, Kurapika!" He pushed down on the smaller boy. "I won't be satisfied until I've taught that old hag a lesson!" I strode over to the two.

"By what, beating up an old lady? What will that accomplish, Leorio?"

"Shut up, Raze!" Kurapika shoved Leorio back, almost hitting me.

"Calm down, Leorio!"

"How am I supposed to calm down?!" He spat in Kurapika's face, making him snap.

"You'll waste our correct response!"

"Eh?" At this point I kicked him in the crotch, effectively 'calming him down' and making him slowly fall to the floor in pain with a pathetic whimper as Kurapika and Hiroshi winced and stared at me in horror.

"Raze, how many times do I have to tell you? Don't kick people there!" Hiroshi scolded. I shrugged.

"It got him to calm down," I protested, not really regretting preventing Leorio from committing _(another attempted)_ murder. Said man let out a pitiful groan.

"C-Correct response?" Kurapika sighed tiredly as if he was amazed at his ignorance.

"We gave the right answer. Silence was the correct response." The black haired man slowly recovered from his pain and stood up shakily, taking the offered hand of Hiroshi.

"Silence? What do you mean?"

"You hit the nail on the head, there was no right answer." Kurapika crossed his arms. "However, we could only state one or two as an answer. In other words, we weren't meant to respond at all." He placed a finger on his lips gently. "Silence was the only response."

"But what about that other guy?"

"She never said it was the right answer," I chirped, intruding into their conversation. Kurapika gave me a nod of approval.

"That's right. She only said 'you may pass,'. In other words, this path is the wrong path. Am I right?" The last bit was directed at the old lady behind us. She gave us a lopsided smile and stood up.

"Precisely." She walked over to the door they had come out of with the stage, knocking on it twice. "The correct path is over here." She had two of her minions open the door. "This path leads to the tree. Take it and it will lead you to the top in two hours." Leorio looked dumbfounded.

"Oh, so that was what this was all about…"

"A couple lives in the cabin beneath that tree. They serve as navigators." _Oh, that'll make the trip a lot easier._ Judging by their names, they'd probably lead us to the site, or at least part way. "If you meet their standards, I believe they will guide you to the exam site." _Wow, I'm spot on today!_

"Baa-chan, I apologize for my rudeness." Leorio bowed deeply to her, but she waved him off.

"Don't be, I don't mind. I do this job because I enjoy meeting people like you." She turned and smiled kindly at him. "Do your best to become a fine Hunter." I turned to the oldest in our group with raised eyebrows.

"Ne, Leorio."

"Hmm?"

"Did it ever occur to you that she only had a set list of questions she was allowed to ask?" He blushed embarrassedly. "Ah. You didn't." _Hiroshi even mentioned that before, I guess it didn't sink in._

"Shut up." The old lady laughed at our bickering just as Gon let out a weird noise that sounded like a mixture of a groan or a moan and flopped onto the ground.

"It's no use. I can't think of an answer." The four of us looked at each other for a moment before chuckling.

"You were still trying to find an answer? You can stop."

"Eh? Why?" Kurapika shook his head.

"The quiz is over." Gon sat up in a crossed leg position.

"I know. But… But you know… What if I run into a situation like that and I can only save one person? What should I do then?" His question seemed to surprise the others. "It wouldn't be right to choose just one… But one day I might have to make that choice." I smiled gently and knelt down next to him.

"Gon," I called, placing a hand on his shoulder. "I think that in the future, you'll have lots of friends you'll be able to call if you need them. I'm sure that we'll all be there for you too." He grinned at me happily. "I know I wouldn't worry about my kids or lover at all, since if I ever had kids, I would teach them how to kick but and be awesome like me and I would make sure my lover could too!" I paused for a moment, thinking something over. "Hang on a sec," I pulled my bag off of my shoulder and rummaged through it, being careful not to bump any of the glass vials within the pouch. "Nope, not that… No, no, no… Ah, here it is!" I pulled out a smooth round looking white rock and handed it to the doe-eyed boy.

"What's this?" I grinned proudly at him.

"This, my dear Gon, is a special whistle that you can use to call me or Hiroshi!" I declared. He 'ohhh'ed and looked at it.

"I don't see any holes on it."

"Here," I flipped it over from where he was looking on the side. "I painted it white so that it's hard to find if you're a regular person. I'm sure you'll be able to find it easily now. It even has a string so that you can put it around your neck!" I stood up and backed away from him. "Try it out, see what happens." He rubbed the hole with his finger for a second, then blew into it, resulting in a loud keening noise for me and Hiroshi, but what sounded like air to Kurapika and Leorio.

"Cool!" Gon exclaimed excitedly, having the same heightened senses that we did. Well, my eyesight was crap and so was Hiroshi's sense of taste and touch. We balanced each other out.

"Um, hate to burst your bubble but no sound came out," Leorio but in looking mildly concerned for Gon. I shook my head.

"Tut, tut, tut! We can hear noises at a high frequency than you guys, which reminds me…" I dug through my bag some more, trying to find the others. "There they are. Here, you guys take one too! If you ever need help - or you just wanna find me - blow into it!" I showed them where the hole was. "Just remember that the hole is facing towards you when it's on your neck."

"Thanks," Kurapika nodded appreciatively and carefully placed it in his bag. Leorio snorted.

"Like I'll need your help." I stuck my tongue out at him and swung my backpack back on my shoulders. "Wait, what will you two do when you need help? I don't see a whistle on Hiroshi or you." Hiroshi let out a lazy grin.

"Ah, well, that's a story for another time." He slung his arm across my shoulder. "Let's just say that those types of calling methods are… Redundant… For us."

XXX

Soon after that, we said our goodbyes and headed off into the tunnel. _It's pretty dark in here…_

"Hey, Raze," My eyes flicked over to Kurapika who was watching me inquisitively.

"Hmm?"

"I don't mean to pry, but when you were speaking to Gon, you never said anything about your mother."

"…"

"May I ask why?" I stayed quiet, making sure the others were farther ahead as I slowed down. I knew Gon would hear, but having him further away seemed to reassure me. Kurapika seemed to take my silence as a no. "Ah, you don't have to if you don't want to, I mean, we've only known each other for two days."

"I… do love her," I murmured quietly. "It's just…"

"It's just?" Kurapika prompted gently, Hiroshi, who was standing beside me started to tense up and cast me an anxious glance. _Don't worry, Hiroshi, I'm not going to give us away,_ I thought, giving him a reassuring smile before turning back to Kurapika.

"She…" I trailed off again, feeling my throat close up. "She's not exactly what you would call a good parent." Hiroshi growled lowly, pressing close to my side.

"That woman could never admit her wrongdoings," He hissed, scowling at the memory.

"Hiroshi," I took a deep breath to clear my head, trying very hard not to let my voice crack. "Not right now." He pursed his lips and quieted down, clearly not very happy. Hiroshi hated whenever I brought up my adoptive mother. "Sorry. My relationship with my mother is a bit… Complicated. It's not really very healthy for me to be around her right now so we're taking a bit of a break from each other." Hiroshi snorted. I could easily figure out what he was thinking: ' _A break? Four and a half years is a little long for a break.'._ Kurapika's eyes softened at my answer.

"My apologies for bringing it up," I shook my head, negating what he said.

"Don't be, it's not your fault. How were you supposed to know?" I grinned at him. "I have Hiroshi, my siblings, you, Gon, and Leorio, right?" I grinned at him. "So I'm fine, and if I'm not-"

"We'll help you."

"-That wasn't what I was gonna say, but that works too." I punched him in the arm playfully. "Now, enough of that depressing talk, we have to hours to kill! Tell me about that book you were reading before while we were walking."

XXX

 **[A/n]: Sorry for taking so long! I should be faster with the updates now since it's summer break! Thanks for reading and if you could drop in a review, it'd be greatly appreciated! Thank you to everyone for you patience!**


	3. Test X Of X Tests - Part Two!

**[Raze]: Thanks to SupremeGeneralJoker, Untrustedwithscissors, DeceivingAura, sydneytrieswriting, Red Distress, DinoPower, blahblahblahcat (I love your username dude), Eka-tepac, Purifiedwate, FlyWithMeToNeverland09, KTD1928, msahurt, Isella of the wolf tribe, and kuroneki for F/F!**

 **Reviews (Before edits)!**

 **Cartoon(Guest): Aw, thanks :) Your review made my day! I'll do my best to keep it that way, and good luck to you too! I was worried that I wasn't integrating them well enough, but this made me feel better. Thank you!**

 **SupremeGeneralJoker: Thank you :) Hope you enjoy!**

 **DeceivingAura: Ahaha, sorry about that, Raze is a girl, but she's kinda sorta disguised as a boy -or a more masculine looking person- for several reasons. If you go back in chapter one, you'll see that I said she was wearing a black wig and was wearing a large hoodie that covers her face. Here's your next chapter!**

 **(After edits)**

 **Isella of the wolf tribe: Thank you! I've been in a bit of a slump lately, so this review gave me extra motivation!**

 **Thanks to everyone for your patience!**

 _Chapter Three,_

 _Test X Of X Tests, Part 2_

XXX

 **Recap:**

 _Soon after that, we said our goodbyes and headed off into the tunnel._ It's pretty dark in here…

 _"Hey, Raze," My eyes flicked over to Kurapika who was watching me inquisitively._

 _"Hmm?"_

 _"I don't mean to pry, but when you were speaking to Gon, you never said anything about your mother."_

 _"…"_

 _"May I ask why?" I stayed quiet, making sure the others were farther ahead as I slowed down. I knew Gon would hear, but having him further away seemed to reassure me. Kurapika seemed to take my silence as a no. "Ah, you don't have to if you don't want to, I mean, we've only known each other for two days."_

 _"I… do love her," I murmured quietly. "It's just…"_

 _"It's just?" Kurapika prompted gently, Hiroshi, who was standing beside me started to tense up and cast me an anxious glance. Don't worry, Hiroshi, I'm not going to give us away, I thought, giving him a reassuring smile before turning back to Kurapika._

 _"She…" I trailed off again, feeling my throat close up. "She's not exactly what you would call a good parent." Hiroshi growled lowly, pressing close to my side._

 _"That woman could never admit her wrongdoings," He hissed, scowling at the memory._

 _"Hiroshi," I took a deep breath to clear my head, trying very hard not to let my voice crack. "Not right now." He pursed his lips and quieted down, clearly not very happy. Hiroshi hated whenever I brought up my adoptive mother. "Sorry. My relationship with my mother is a bit… Complicated. It's not really very healthy for me to be around her right now so we're taking a bit of a break from each other." Hiroshi snorted. I could easily figure out what he was thinking:_ 'A break? Four and a half years is a little long for a break.'. _Kurapika's eyes softened at my answer._

 _"My apologies for bringing it up," I shook my head, negating what he said._

 _"Don't be, it's not your fault. How were you supposed to know?" I grinned at him. "I have Hiroshi, my siblings, you, Gon, and Leorio, right?" I grinned at him. "So I'm fine, and if I'm not-"_

 _"We'll help you."_

 _"-That wasn't what I was gonna say, but that works too." I punched him in the arm playfully. "Now, enough of that depressing talk, we have to hours to kill! Tell me about that book you were reading before while we were walking."_

XXX

We trudged through the forest, which was mostly dry with the exception of a few puddles here or there. It was also pretty windy, I had to repeatedly check my hood to see if it shifted at all. I took note of it, not wanting to do anything to screw up the environment.

"It's totally dark out," Leorio grumbled, being the slowest of us all. Gon, Kurapika, Hiroshi and I were already at _least_ three meters away. "'Walk two hours,' She said? It was two hours, two hours ago! Damn." I snickered, knowing that it'd only taken us that long because we had to repeatedly stop for Leorio when he kept whining about being tired and hungry. It was early night now, probably around… oh, six or seven o'clock?

Leorio's attention was directed elsewhere for a moment. "Another 'Beware of Magical Beasts' sign?" I twitched, shifting slightly away from the sign. "Are we ever gonna make it to the exam site?" Being the only other one of us without super-human hearing, I doubt that Kurapika could actually hear what the older male was saying, even though he looked somewhat annoyed with the man's constant babbling. However, we turned around anyway and waited for him to catch up, only to see him flailing his limbs every which way, his briefcase getting dangerously close to a tree. "I'm hungry!" Leorio screeched. "I need to take a dump! I gotta take a leak, too!"

"Leorio, we'll leave you behind!" Gon called, Kurapika turning back around with an unamused face, making me snort.

"As eloquent as always, Liorio," I got a _'You damn brat!'_ in return as I pulled a lollipop out from my backpack and I was about to place it in my mouth when it was snatched out of my hand. I turned to glare at the culprit.

"Raze, what did I tell you?" Hiroshi scolded, placing the candy in a pocket I was unaware of. _Damn. Since when did that have pockets?_ "No more suckers today. You've already had six and you're going to have a sugar high," I gave him an innocent expression as I took out another and unwrapped it, the others watching our interaction interestedly. "Raze…" He warned. I slowly moved it towards my mouth, my eyes not leaving his. "Don't you _dare._ " I glanced at my sucker, then back at him. I could have an angry Hiro and a possible sugar high, or I could have a happy Hiro and a sugar craving. _Eh, screw it._ I opened my mouth to plopped the candy in as he let out a groan of complete exasperation. "Why don't you _ever_ listen to me?" I smiled sweetly at him, bouncing on the balls of my feet.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," I denied, then looked at him very seriously. "I just can't stop these urges, man! They just keep coming for me!" The look on his face said exactly what he thought of me at that moment.

"Idiot," Hiroshi deadpanned as I laced my fingers together behind my head. _Or I guess his words do._

"Yes?"

"I give up! Have your sugar high and pass out," Hiroshi grumbled. I grinned at Gon and Kurapika.

"All the sugar will be mine!" Kurapika sent Hiroshi a look of pity before commenting,

"Oh, I see it," He pointed behind me, Gon looking as well. As the others continued on to the cabin, I pulled Hiroshi aside, making a small excuse about having to discuss something with him - which I did.

"So-"

"They're _pissed,"_ Hiroshi cut me off before I could say another word, reading my mind. "Dad's gonna have your head when we get back." I gave him a sheepish smile.

"Well, what was I supposed to do? He wasn't going to let me take the Hunter Exam and there was no way I could just stay in the village for the rest of my life. I've got things to do and people to find!" Hiroshi gave me a wry grin, placing his hand on my head.

"Trust me, _I know,"_ He chuckled. "Either way, I tried to calm him down and hopefully he won't be _completely_ irrational when you return. At the very least, you're going to have to do a _hell_ of a lot of work to make up for it. On the bright side, you did tell the _Maiusculus Arbor*_ that you were leaving, so she'll probably stand up for you."

"And at the very worst, I'll be trapped for life," I muttered, ever the optimist. "It's a small comfort." I felt my heart sink into my throat at the idea of Tsuyoi, Hiroshi's father, yelling at me. I didn't like it when people raised their voices - it usually ended up scaring me. Leorio, for some reason, found it necessary to shout at every opportunity which was why I opted to stay around Kurapika instead. Don't get me wrong, I liked Leorio, he just needed to tone it down a little so that I didn't get the crap scared out of me every time he spoke.

Hiroshi rolled his eyes as we heard the window up ahead shatter. A strange yellow creature, a woman, Gon, and Kurapika leapt from the window one by one - except for the woman, she was being kidnapped or something. "…Should we, maybe…?" Hiroshi groaned, slowly sauntering over to the stairs.

"I'll get the dumbass, you take the other two," I let out a sigh and spun on my heel to chase after the yellow creature. _They couldn't've waited until I got there to make trouble, could they?_

XXX

Raze rapidly swung from tree branch to tree branch, following their scent trails to an area in the forest where they sectioned off. Kurapika's stayed in the general area, while Gon's and the Kiriko's took a harsh turn to the right. Kurapika seemed like he was nearby but Gon's trail led to a far off direction.

Raze figured that Gon could handle himself and scampered down the tree trunk head-first, intending to find Kurapika instead since he most likely had to take care of the woman that was dropped onto the ground.

The brunette glanced around the forest, noting absently that her vision was much better at night when something tan caught her eye.

 _Wooden swords…?_ Raze raised an eyebrow at the two connected weapons at her feet, picking them up and running her fingers down their length. The black-eyed girl sniffed them and got a trace of citrus. _Those are_ **definitely** _Kurapika's… Now the question is, where is he?_ Raze placed her hands in her pockets, her left clutching a dagger and her right hand wrapping around a small vial. Raze closed her eyes and shut off the rest of her senses, focusing solely on her ears.

Raze could hear the birds singing, crickets chirping, leaves rustling, _and_ \- She opened her eyes, now well adjusted to the darkness, and grinned impishly; taking off in a sprint to her left.

 _And a Kurapika struggling._

XXX

Hiroshi stood silently at the doorway, watching Leorio tend to the man using herbal remedies and medicines that he recognized. He watched with interest as the elder male quickly and efficiently cleaned the wound, treated it and wrapped it.

 _He's fast…_ Hiroshi noted, coming closer to look at the wound. It was pretty nasty. The man's torso had been stabbed and blood had been flowing out of his body with no apparent clots to stop it from worsening. _Must hurt like a son of a bitch._ However, Leorio had patched it up just as well as any doctor in the village he'd ever seen.

The injured man shuddered as the medicines touched his wounds.

"P-Please," He groaned, raising up a hand to touch the Leorio's face. "My wife… Please save my wife!" Hiroshi walked over and placed a hand on the man's forehead to attempt to calm him down.

"Your wife'll be okay… She's with our friends, she'll be back soon," Leorio murmured quietly, trying to be as soft as possible with the wound. Hiroshi knelt down to the smashed up floor of the cottage, brushing away the glass around the man.

"Your wife is fine. Our friends went after her and she'll be perfectly safe. I would be able to tell you immediately if she was harmed," Hiroshi assured him, gently moving the wet towel that was on his forehead to his eyes. "Now, sleep." The victim nodded and soon his pulse went down and his breathing slowed, letting the two males know that he was asleep.

"Impressive," Leorio complimented quietly. "Most people wouldn't be able to calm someone down that quickly." Hiroshi hummed and dipped a finger in one of the puddles of blood beside him and sniffed it. "W-What're you doing?" _It smells like blood… But it doesn't smell like_ ** _human_** _blood,_ He glanced at the sleeping form on the floor, licking his lips hungrily. _It smells like_ ** _beast_** _blood._

"Leorio, I'm afraid your patient isn't who you think he is."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that this is not a human," He meet Leorio's gaze, gold eyes wary. "This is a Kiriko."

XXX

A few minutes before Raze arrived at the clearing in the forest, the kidnapped girl woke up, woozily rubbing a hand against her shoulder.

"Are you okay?" Kurapika asked with concern, helping her up. He leaned forward, scanning her for any signs of pain. "Are you injured anywhere?" She looked up at him worriedly, the wind tousling her bright pink hair.

"I'm okay," She said, her eyebrows furrowed. "What about my husband? How is he?"

"Don't worry," Kurapika assured her, placing a hand on her shoulder comfortingly. "Our friend is taking care of him." The woman grabbed his tabard weakly.

"Please, take me to my husband!" She begged, her sleeve slipping down to reveal some oddly shaped symbols. They were black and swirled across her wrist and beyond her sleeve. Kurapika's eyes widened in surprise.

"Those tattoos…" Kurapika murmured, obviously recognizing the symbols. The woman pulled away and hid her wrist, turning away from the silver eyed teen. There was fear swirling around in her rose pink eyes from his words. "You're…"

"Kurapika!" Leorio's voice interrupted the conversation. "Are you okay?" Leorio called loudly, coming into view and jogging over to the two on the ground. His briefcase was missing, an odd thing to see the man without. Kurapika's eyes narrowed in suspicion.

"Leorio?" The addressed placed his hands on his knees to catch his breath.

"Whew, guess you guys are alright." He breathed a sigh of relief, giving a grin to the blond.

"How is that man?" Kurapika interrogated, back almost completely turned to Leorio. The brown-eyed man rubbed his head.

"Yeah, no worries," Leorio waved him off casually, glancing back over the way he came. "The wound wasn't as deep as it looked," He faced Kurapika again, hands on his hips. "I gave him some painkillers and he's asleep in the cabin." The blond gripped his weapons, his eyes not leaving the woman's face.

"I see." Kurapika breathed, his grip on his swords tightening.

 _Thwack!_

Kurapika smoothly threw his arm back and hit Leorio in the face, sending him flying. The woman looked shocked at this act of violence and let out a sharp gasp, jerking away from the blond.

"Leorio" made groaning noises and gripped his face as the wooden sword returned to Kurapika. He laughed, shoulders shaking as he grew bigger.

"How did you know…? _How did you know I was an imposter?"_ His form quickly became more beast-like, leaving the teen with a Kiriko in Leorio's stead. Kurapika was completely unfazed by the transformation.

"I didn't think that you were," He answered coolly, glancing up at the yellow beast to his left. "I told Leorio to take care of the injured man, and he consented. Given the magical beast is still on the loose, I attacked you for foolishly leaving an injured man on his own with only one person to guard him," He turned to face the creature. "That's all."

The Kiriko laughed again and jumped up into the air, disappearing into the night. "Now," Kurapika growled, whipping back around to the woman in front of him, "I need you to answer my question." Kurapika's expression darkened as he placed his sword against the woman's throat, voice dark and venomous as he finished. "Who are you?" As he glared, she smirked, her face starting to take on more beast-like qualities by the second.

XXX

I scowled at the yellow thing in front of me as I hid in the bushes. I lay flat against the ground, watching as it - I'm going to call it Sunshine- held Kurapika in a vice grip with one long paw covering his mouth.

 _Let's see… If I charge, there's a high possibility of Kurapika getting used as a hostage or getting injured, so that won't work._ If I surprised her from above, I had a small chance of getting him out of harm's way. I could directly confront her and try to talk my way out of it but I wasn't good at words and once again- Kurapika could be used as a hostage. _I'll save the talking for after I get him back._

Kurapika was seriously screwing up all of my attack plans.

 _I suppose I could distract her. If I throw a decoy into the opposite bush to me and then a different one, I could take her by surprise, grab Pika, and get to a safe distance._ That would probably be my safest option.

I swiftly took off my bag and sifted looked through it. _Aha!_ I grabbed a vial filled with a yellow looking dust, ignoring the others, and slipped my bag back on. I glanced around for a rock and saw a large brown one and a smaller black one. My heart started beating fast in anticipation, hoping to the Gods that it would work.

 _Three… Two… One…_ I chucked the first rock over to my right, prompting Sunshine to whip her head over in that direction. She stood warily, eyeing the area carefully. _C'mon, take the bait, take the bait!_ I winced at Kurapika's muffled shouts and watched Sunshine turn to the right with a sense of elation but it turned into confusion when there was a blur of movement.

"Get back, beast!" To my shock, Kurapika managed to bite Sunshine, stab her in the eyeballs with his fingers, kick her, and make him release him all in the span of a few seconds. _Damn,_ I resisted the urge to laugh in amazement. _I guess I don't need to save the princess after all!_

 _"Damn brat,"_ The yellow creature hissed, her paws over her eyes in pain. "You'll pay for that!" And I'd take that as my cue to join. I stayed low, rapidly changing plans in my mind. Rescuing Kurapika was no longer needed and all I needed to do now was catch her off guard. I grinned down at the vial in my hand, double checking the way the wind was blowing. It was toward Sunshine. _Then…_

I jumped out of the bush and leapt toward Sunshine, swiftly uncorking the vial and flashing the yellow substance at her. I re-corked it as fast as it opened, not wanting to use too much of it. Sunshine let out a shriek of rage and started coughing and sneezing all over the place.

"Raze!" Kurapika exclaimed in surprise as I landed back over by him. "What're you-?" I grabbed his wrist and dragged him into the bush, running as fast as I could with him tagging along.

"No time!" I nearly fell on my face a couple of times but Kurapika helped me back up, taking me with him. After a few falls and a couple of minutes, I judged our distance far enough and slowed down.

"What… What was that?" He was slightly out of breath, poor guy. I pulled his swords off of my belt and handed them back to him with a smug smile.

"Highly concentrated Alliah pollen," Alliah was a plant that only bloomed in the summer months near my village. I let out a shaky laugh. What I just did went against all of what my mother had taught me not do.

 _"Don't waste your time on other people. The sweetest tongue hides the sharpest tooth, my lovely rose."_ I shook my head, shutting it out of my mind. Hiroshi always told me that it wasn't good to dwell on her words. My family had survived for generations using self-preservation, but I wasn't going to be like them.

I took a deep breath and returned to the conversation, making a mental reminder to meet up with my parents one last time. "It took me ages to collect that stuff, so I try to use in sparingly." Kurapika looked at me incredulously.

"You gave the Kiriko an _allergy attack?"_ He shook his head, chuckling a little, his hair swaying with his movements. "Of all the things you could do, that wasn't exactly what I was expecting." I raised an eyebrow.

"Well, I certainly wasn't expecting you to break out of hostage life on your own, princess," I huffed indignantly. "You completely screwed up my plans to become your knight in shining armour." Kurapika gave me an amused smile, his eyes glinting with humour.

"My apologies. I'll attempt to play the damsel in distress longer next time." I blinked in surprise, not planning on having him go along with the joke. _Huh. I guess he has a sense of humour after all._

"Actually, I was kind of worried that Sunshine would try to use you," I hummed, eyeing his wild hair. It was all tousled and his clothes were rumpled. It was kind of funny to see the calm and composed Kurapika so… Disheveled.

"Sunshine? You mean the Kiriko?"

"A kiri… Kiri… What?"

XXX

The man chuckled from underneath the cloth, slowly sitting up.

"So you found out, huh?" He grabbed the cloth with one hand and grinned at Hiroshi. "Oh well, I've already learned what I need to know anyway."

"W-What're you talking about?" Leorio stammered, raising his hands as he realized something. "Wait, you shouldn't be sitting up, you might reopen your wound!" Hiroshi rolled his eyes, not surprised at the denseness of the man.

"He's not injured, Leorio,"

"What are you talking about? Of course he's injured!" He argued, pointing a rude finger at the man. "You were right there when I bandaged him up!"

"He's a Kiriko, you idiot. They heal incredibly quickly. He probably just injured himself to see what you would do." Leorio looked to his right to see a giant yellow creature towering over him, before it switched back to the man, now with no blood or injury on his clothes.

"Oh," He squeaked, jumping away.

"I knew you were stupid, but that was impressive," Hiroshi commented, tugging on his purple hair. "Most people would figure it out easily but even after me, your comrade, pointed it out, you still didn't notice." Leorio flushed in embarrassment and scowled.

"Shut up, you damn fish," Hiroshi shot a glare Leorio's way.

"And you can't even tell what kind of animal traits I was blessed with," He muttered while shaking his head, much to the Kiriko's amusement. "What a dumbass," Leorio growled as a vein pulsed on his forehead in irritation.

"You're a lot ruder when Raze isn't around, brat!"

XXX

"Do we have to fight?" I asked the Kiriko with a reluctant groan, my knives poised and ready to attack in my hands. "I mean, I'd really rather not hurt anyone tonight, but I will if you continue to attack us," I warned, shifting in front of Kurapika protectively. The Kiriko smirked, her rows of sharp teeth glinting in the moonlight. Sunshine'd caught up with us and initiated a sneak attack - which Kurapika managed to thwart.

"I don't think there's a way out of this, Raze," My blond haired buddy took up a defensive stance, watching the Kiriko's movements. Sunshine nodded in agreement. _It looks like I'm gonna have to fight,_ I sighed internally and walked forward just out of the Kiriko's range.

She lunged toward me, claws extended and dangerous. I dodged to the left, having the advantage in speed over her and sliced part of her cheek open with my dagger in my left hand. Growling, she punched me in the gut, making me wheeze for a moment before recovering and blocking her next attack thanks to Kurapika shouting to me in warning. Her attacks left my arms shaking.

 _Crap, if this becomes a test of strength, I'll lose!_ I had to find a way to turn it around so that I would be able to use my abilities to my advantage.

Sunshine hissed and swiped at me with her other arm while I flipped back several feet and sheathed my knives, reaching in my pockets for a bumpy vial.

"Oh? And what're you going to do without your big hunks of metal, dearie?" She taunted. I smiled as the wind started to pick up, rustling my clothes and moving my hair. I closed my eyes, letting myself analyze the trajectory and speed of the wind. I took a deep breath in and out, controlling my breathing as a memory of the past came back to me.

 _"Forcing something to bend to your will, will not make you strong. Move it gently, using minimal power, and you will see how much you improve."_

I could hear my mother's voice ringing in my head as the wind became more powerful, causing the leaves to rustle and Kurapika to gasp as my hood fell off. It revealed two small, round ears on top of my short brown hair, the moonlight giving a better illumination to my features.

"What am I going to do?" I repeated, the words rolling off my tongue. I grinned, pulling out several vials and daggers within my fingers. "I'm going to _win."_ With that, I sprinted at the beast, ready to kick some butt when-

 _"WAAAAAAIIIIIIIT!"_

XXX

It turned out the Kiriko themselves were some kind of examiners. I looked at the house with the smashed up windows and lined up along with my friends, who had all gathered at the front.

 _XXX_

"Hey, you can stop now!" I stumbled and screeched to a stop and glanced to my left where Gon was running towards us with a huge grin on his face, the larger Kiriko behind him. I spared a glance at Sunshine, who had relaxed out of her fighting stance when she saw one of her companions. "We're friends!"

When he reached us, the doe-eyed boy let out a noise of surprise.

"Your hood's down!" He gawked, making my eyes widen and I sucked in a gasp. "You have _ears_ on top of your head!" He exclaimed and I felt my heart drop down into my stomach. _Crapcrapcrapcrapcrap, that wasn't supposed to happen!_ I moved my hands to yank up my hood again when they were stopped. Behind me was the Kurta who spun me around and looked closely at my face for the second time.

"Uh…" I could feel heat rising up in my face from being stared at that closely, my eyes darting around, attempting to find a safe spot to look. Kurapika blinked, then released me.

"You're a demi-human as well?" He murmured in surprise, eyes still locked onto my ears. "But you don't have a tail," Kurapika mused mostly to himself. _SHIIIIIIIIIIIIT. Don't recognize me, don't recognize me!_ I hissed inside of my head, aiming toward the blond. If he figured out who I was, it was all over.

"Woah, Raze, you're a Nakamura too!" Gon bounced in excitement. "That's so cool!" I let out a resigned sigh. _Gods, I knew I should've just pinned my hood down._ I supposed there was no use trying to hide anything now, it was too late.

"No, Gon, I'm not a Nakamura even though I've lived there for a few years. I'm a demi-human," I corrected. "And… I _do_ have a tail." I lifted up my sweater slightly and revealed the long, muscular tail wrapped around my waist.

 _"Oh!"_

"I was _trying_ to hide it," I grumbled, stretching out my muscles. "You know, with the whole prejudice some people have against demi-humans, I figured it'd be easier just to hide it from everybody." Kurapika and Gon looked mildly offended and curious respectively.

"You have two pairs of ears, so can you hear out of both of them? How do you move your tail? Do you have superhuman senses? What do you mean you only lived with them for a while? What's that silver thing on your ankle?" I held up a hand to stop the barrage of questions from Gon with a laugh.

"Yes to the first one, my tail moves like any other part of my body, I have horrible daytime eyesight and my sense of taste is awful but other than that, yes, and the last two are long stories that I'm not going to go into right now." I glanced downward with a grimace, noting that the silver anklet had been exposed since my pant legs had gotten caught in it. _Shoot,_ I leaned down to fix it, mildly annoyed. Kurapika still looked a little miffed about my previous comment.

"You thought that I would have prejudices against you?" I shook my head.

"You would be surprised how fast people change when they find out about demi-humans," I pressed my lips together. "I've had too many friends killed, poached, or sold to slavery to be overly relaxed with that kind of thing. It had nothing to do with you personally," I assured him with a small smile. _It doesn't seem like he recognizes me yet… Probably because I'm not wearing my usual clothing. Good._ Kurapika returned the favour and looked somewhat mollified by my explanation.

"How strong is your tail?" Gon wondered, leaning to the side to look behind me at it. I twisted it around his waist and lifted him up into the air above my head, grinning at his surprised squeak.

"Does that answer your question?"

"Your tail is very long for a cat," I twitched and shot Kurapika a glare.

"I'm not a _cat,"_ I hissed in annoyance, crossing my arms. "I'm a fossa, thank you very much!" The Kiriko rolled their eyes, probably used to the weirdness after being navigators for so long.

"Whatever you are, could you all please come back to the house?" I shrugged and released Gon, following after the magical beasts. I didn't want to get lost, after all.

When Kurapika, Gon and I got to the house - after much chatter between Gon and the magical beasts-, Leorio stared at me in confusion.

"Who's this?" He asked, waving a hand in my general direction. "Where's Raze?" My eyebrow twitched.

"This is Raze," Hiroshi sighed, walking over and pulling the hood of my sweater over my face. I swatted his hands away and gathered the sweater in my arms once more. "See, you moron? She's still wearing the same clothes on too. She just has her hood off, dumbass." He lowered his voice so that only I could hear it as he nuzzled my cheek. _"Tell me what happened later,"_ Leorio looked on in disbelief.

"Eh? Say something!" He commanded. I raised an eyebrow.

"Something," I responded amusedly, wincing at his volume in the next sentence.

"It really is you!"

"No, I'm just an alien from outer space coming to suck out your brains," I stated sarcastically, turning to look around at all the different types of plants around us. _Nothing I can gather and use later. Sad._

"But you have a _tail,"_ Leorio hissed, staring at said body part.

"Why are all of you so fixated on my tail?" I wondered absently. "Hiroshi has gills and several rows of deadly teeth which is much more odd than fuzzy ears and a tail." Hiroshi gave me an offended look.

"Hey!" Leorio continued to stare at me in utter bafflement.

"And- And you're a girl!" I gave him a funny look.

"Why is this such a hard thing to grasp? Do I really look so much like a guy?" I ran a hand through my roughly cut hair. "I mean, I realize that my hair is really short and I'm not super curvy, but still." Kurapika leaned over toward me.

"I don't believe he was there for that conversation on the way here," The blond commented. "He was attempting to take the bus to Zaban city at that moment." I made a noise of understanding.

"Riiiiight," I recalled, turning to Leorio and placing my hands on my waist. "Hey, by the way, I'm not a dude."

"No _crap!"_

 _"Ahem,_ " The Kiriko family cleared their throats, catching our attention with a grin. "How many years has it been since someone was able to tell us apart?" The one on our right wondered.

"I'm ecstatic!" The other smiled at us happily. _Did they just entirely change the subject?_ "To think, all these years, and then three of you show up!" Leorio leaned over towards Kurapika.

"Can you tell that their faces and voices are different?" Leorio whispered, trying to discern between the two.

"No, not at all," Kurapika admitted. I looked over at them in surprise.

"Really? It's almost obvious to me."

"Says the person who lived in a half animal village…" Leorio huffed, crossing his arms. "You can probably see the difference." I shook my head in a negative.

"I can't see it, I can kind of smell it and hear it," I corrected. "And it's only slightly different. I'm not much better than you two. Hiro has a _really_ strong sense of smell so he could probably smell these guys from miles away." My best friend bumped his shoulder against mine.

"Perks of being a shark," Hiroshi grinned, wrapping an arm around my waist. Gon turned to us, pointing to one of the Kiriko.

"You see, the one Kurapika and I beat up at first is the husband," The two teens looked at him in exasperation.

 **"Like we said, which one are you talking about?"** The husband stepped forward on his birdlike feet.

"Allow us to introduce ourselves," He said. "We're navigators for the Exam. Our family provides support for the Hunter Exam." The redheaded girl from before raised her hand.

"I'm their daughter!" _Oh, it's Sunshine._ The man on her right did the same.

"I'm their son!" Leorio stepped forward, raising his arms in a shrugging gesture.

"Man, you had us fooled," He marveled, shaking his head.

"You mean, they sure had _you_ fooled," Hiroshi smirked. "The rest of us figured it out easily." _Ara? Did something happen while I was gone? Hiroshi's gotten a bit… Vicious._ I exchanged looks with Kurapika and Gon who both looked somewhat worried.

"What was that, you brat?!"

"The Hunter Exam changes site every year," The Kiriko continued, ignoring the commotion. "It's quite difficult to locate it."

"So we Navigators help by guiding the applicants to the Exam site," His wife finished.

"Oh, so that's how it works," Gon broke in, looking at the Navigators in awe. The daughter shook her head and waved her hands in front of her in a negative.

"But we don't help every candidate." Her brother took over from there.

"We test the applicants to see if they're qualified enough to take the Exam." Leorio straightened nervously and tugged on his tie.

"Kurapika-dono," The girl beckoned him closer.

"Yes." She smiled at him kindly.

"You successfully used the most vague of hints to determine that we weren't spouses." She pulled down her sleeve from her arm and rubbed the "tattoos" which rubbed off easily. "The hint was these tattoos which, in this region, mark a woman as single for life." _So that's what those are,_ I hummed, having noticed them when we walked back. "You also managed to escape from me after you were captured and prevent a sneak attack from behind, protecting you and our friend. Kurapika-dono demonstrated that he is very knowledgeable and kind… Therefore, he passes." Relief was evident on his face as he breathed out a sigh. Gon grinned at him and held a fist out.

"Way to go, Kurapika!" He crowed, excited for his friend. Kurapika smiled and fist bumped him while I pulled out a piece of hard candy and grabbed his open hand.

"What're you…?" I pried his fist open and placed the candy in his palm and grinned at him.

"Your reward!" I cheered, bumping his shoulder with mine. "You did good, so you get a reward," I insisted. He sent me a strange look.

"I'm not a child."

"Yes you are, you're only seventeen, that's still a kid!" I protested. He rolled his eyes but gave me a small smile in return.

"I suppose. Thanks,"

"Leorio-dono," The husband called this time, making Leorio swallow hard and stumble forward.

"Y-Yeah!"

"You never realized my true identity," His sister giggled, causing him to flush sheepishly. "However, you dressed my injuries faster and more thoroughly than any doctor." He smiled at the tense black haired man. "More importantly, you continued to reassure me that my wife was safe." I turned and grinned cheerily at him along with everyone else, making him blush.

"S-Stop it…" He looked away, ears red. "It's embarrassing…"

"Your kindness makes you worthy to take the Hunter Exam. Thus, you pass." Leorio collapsed on the ground, stretching out to get rid of the tension.

"R-Really?! Thank goodness…" I chuckled at that, and Gon held his fist out to Leorio as well.

"Raze-dono, I have a question for you," The wife interjected.

"Hmm?"

"Why didn't you follow Gon-dono through the forest, or stay with Leorio-dono and Hiroshi-dono?" I placed a hand on my chin.

"Well, when Hiroshi and I noticed the commotion, we agreed on me going in the forest because I'm faster and him staying behind to help Leorio. I trusted him so I continued on." I explained. "When I reached the fork in the trails, Gon's went off far away and Kurapika's disappeared, although his weapons were left on the ground." I got a few nods. "Kurapika's strong — probably,"

"Oi."

"But assuming it was another magical beast, it would be difficult for Kurapika to protect your daughter and himself at the same time without his weapons. Gon was fine and I thought that he could handle one of you easily- no offence." I added.

"None taken."

"Besides, I don't have the greatest of vision, as you can tell," I gestured to my glasses. _Although it's better during the night._ "So I stayed behind to help the damsel in distress escape and to potentially beat someone up." Kurapika twitched but didn't say anything in his defence. The Kirikos, however, found that hilarious. "Plus, Gon could've just called for me if he needed me. I'm pretty fast!" I told them proudly.

"Then, Raze-dono, your observational skills and natural strength when fighting my daughter earn you the right to go to the Hunter Exam. Therefore, you pass." I grinned at them, delighted.

"Thanks!" I skipped back over to the group, a feeling of relief loosening my tightened throat. I didn't even realize how worried I was.

"Good job!" Gon praised me, and I ruffled his hair in response, bumping fists with him. "Thanks, squirt!"

"Hiroshi-dono…" The shark-boy looked up to the large yellow beast. "You stayed with Leorio-dono at Raze-dono's request and stayed there to guard us. You also assured me that my wife was safe and calmed me down, making me rest. You alerted Leorio-dono as well when you realized that I wasn't human by the smell of my blood, rather than just attacking me on the spot and possibly injuring your friend in the process. Your kindness and intelligence makes you a great candidate." He smiled at the purple headed boy. "You pass." Hiroshi smiled at me and I smiled back. I wasn't too worried about him passing, I was pretty certain that he'd be fine.

"Kindness?" Leorio snorted. "He called me a dumbass." Hiroshi shrugged, a ghost of a smirk on his face.

"It's true,"

"Hiroshi," I scolded, elbowing him.

Once again, Gon held out his fist, Hiroshi hesitating for a moment then slowly and gently placing it against the spiky-haired boy's hand.

"And finally, Gon-dono." Gon came closer to the family, not unnerved at all by the pressure.

"Yes!"

"Your superhuman physical ability and powers of observation make you worthy to take the Hunter Exam. You pass!" Gon's face lit up and he held out his fists expectantly to bump with everyone, Hiroshi and I being last. _He's so cute._ I tousled his hair again for good measure.

XXX

Afterwards, we all got to ride on the Kiriko, Gon and Hiroshi sharing one, while I shared with Kurapika, much to Hiroshi's annoyance. He wanted to sit with me but the daughter of the family had taken a liking to Kurapika and I, and she wanted to know how I planned to fight her the rest of the way. I was more delighted by the fact that they had wings hidden underneath their arms.

"Isn't it great that we all passed?" Gon chirped cheerfully over the wind.

"It's too early to celebrate," The Kurta in front of me answered, holding onto the Kiriko's fur, while I held onto his waist. "We've nearly earned the right to take the Exam." I poked his cheek, one arm still wrapped around him, the wind ruffling my hair. I didn't bother putting my hood back up, since it was quite a while until the next town. The chances of someone spotting me were highly unlikely.

"Way to be a party pooper, Kura," He blinked.

"Kura?" He questioned, trying to look back at me.

"You needed a nickname," I reasoned, shuffling forwards.

"Didn't you call me Pikachu earlier?"

"Yeah, but that's too long… Maybe Pika?" He chuckled and shook his head at my antics.

"What's wrong with celebrating a little?" Leorio called from down below. He was much heavier than the rest of us, and needed to have both the adults carry him which was why we were all sharing. "We're making progress." Kurapika sighed.

"Honestly, you people really should think," Leorio started kicking at him, flailing wildly.

"Hey! Why must you always be such a smart-ass?" I gasped in mock horror.

"My word, such foul language! Gon, cover your ears!"

 **"Stop moving around!"** The two Kirikos shouted, frantically trying to keep their balance. "If you fall, blame yourself!" We all laughed, Hiroshi making faces at the black haired man. _This is gonna be a fun Exam,_ I thought to myself.

 **XXX**

 _Maiusculus Arbor* = Great Tree_

 **[A/n]: Well, that only took me a couple weeks to finish, lol. This time for sure I should have the chapters up much faster. Thanks for reading!**

 **[Raze]: Please review, and F/F if you liked it!**


	4. Rivals X For X Survival

**_(Before edits) Reviews:_**

 **SupremeGeneralJoker: Thanks, I try :D To answer your question, she's not exactly "hiding" her gender, but she** ** _is_** **trying to hide her identity (It was mentioned briefly in the first chapter, and it was pretty vague, so I get why you didn't catch that). Why is she trying to hide her identity, you ask? Well, that's a story for another time ;)**

 **[Raze]: Yeah, it'll be awesome to see their faces when they find out!**

 **[Gon]: Who's faces?**

 **[Raze]: *Whistles innocently* Nobody~**

 **[A/n]: There is** ** _one_** **person who knows who Raze is and whatnot, since he was her best friend beforehand… Isn't it odd that he's playing along? *Cackles evilly***

 ** _(After Edits)_**

 **Isella of the wolf tribe: Lol, Raze has this weird habit of giving people nicknames when she considers their names too long - AKA, four syllables.**

 **[Raze]: That sounds like a Pokemon… Honestly, I think Kurapika's just a Pikachu in disguise.**

 **[A]: Tell us your secrets, Kurapika! Haha, thanks for the review and these ones should be starting to get out a lot faster - although I have to go back up to my cottage soon, which means almost no internet T-T**

 **Thanks to Ayame Himura-chan, Ally1012, Uzumaki Maelstrom and YourFriendBob for F/F!**

 _Chapter Four,_

 _Rivals X For X Survival_

 _XXX_

We spent all night on the Kirikos, stopping once or twice for _-surprise, surprise-_ Leorio, who needed to have a pee/snack break. It was nice to have the breaks in between so that I could get up and stretch. As much as I loved being in the air and chatting with the daughter - her name was Jiilya, apparently-, staying in the same position for hours on end was difficult for me. I liked to move, so as soon as we dropped down I would jump off and jog around the area.

"Raze, what are you doing?" Gon tilted his head cutely as he asked his question. In fairness, it _was_ a valid question, considering that I liked to practice throwing my daggers while I ran.

"I'm practicing," I answered, half paying attention as I threw a dagger at the centre of the tree. "I need to keep my skills up, otherwise I'll be less accurate." _Damn_. I was a centimeter or two off where I wanted to hit. I frowned and threw the rest in a consistent pattern, then strode over to the tree to collect them after.

"Raze, why were you hiding your face with your hood?" Gon queried again, making me twitch. "You said that you would put it up again when we got to town, but why?" I ran my hands over the bark of the tree and the indents I had just made.

"It's like I said before, Gon," I gave him a tired smile. "People 'round this continent don't like demi-humans. There's a lot of rumours, myths, and prejudice against us."

"What's prejudice?"

"Prejudice is a preconceived opinion that's not based on opinion or actual experience," Kurapika answered, standing a little to my left with his nose in a book. "For example, some superstitious people believe that people like Raze are monsters, bring disaster, insentient, bad luck, only good as slaves, vicious, etc. It's because demi-humans don't typically leave their villages on this continent that only the bad rumours get out about them."

"Why would they think Raze is a monster?"

"…I don't know, Gon. I don't know." I let out a sigh at Kurapika's answer as I continued to beat up the poor tree in front of me.

"Well, luckily for me, I wouldn't be considered a "prize" to catch. I wouldn't be much use for body parts, so if they did manage to catch me, I would most likely be sold into slavery as a bodyguard or a general slave."

"Why wouldn't you be considered a catch?" I turned and faced Gon with a chuckle. _So many questions in this little kit._

"Mammalian demi-humans are very common and not very high on the price list for poachers. Besides, I'm not very animalistic looking right now, am I? That alone would be a deterrent. I can't be used as a poison tester, I don't have super strength, and since I have problems sleeping because of my hearing, I wouldn't really be of much use. If anything, they'd cut off my ears, tail, claws, and gouge out my eyes to be sold for medicine or something. They'd more likely go after Hiroshi since he's a rarer kind than I am."

"That's horrible!" Gon's voice quavered. _Sweet kid._ I felt kind of bad for dumping such a large dose of reality on him. Well, at least I wasn't a Mzera. Their kind had many more problems than I did. "How could anyone do something like that?" I gave him a sad smile.

"Because there are people in this world who will do anything to get what they want," I replied quietly. "That's why most of our villages are so isolated all the time." I held up a hand, seeing the next question in Gon's eyes. "To continue my explanation, there are Aquatic, Mammalian, Reptilian, Herbal, and Elemental demi-humans. Hiroshi would be Aquatic — they don't typically leave the water for the most part, so they're hard to find. My village is a mixture of all kinds but mainly mammalian, aquatic, and elemental demi-humans. We have a few regular humans too."

"Could we come visit sometime?" That one took me off guard. I opened my mouth in surprise, then snapped it shut.

"I… I suppose you guys could, as long as you were with me," I mused. "I don't know how you'd find it otherwise." Gon gave me a face-splitting grin, making me half-wonder how he could even smile that wide. My answer caught Kurapika's attention.

"Where is it?" I frowned in thought.

"Uh, you know the Republic of Padokea?" I tried, attempting to remember the general location without a map. I wasn't very good at the whole address thing yet. "It's around there," Kurapika smiled and nodded.

"Yes, I do," Gon waved his hand again.

"What's the bracelet thing around your ankle?"

"It isn't a bracelet, exactly…" I trailed off, not knowing how to explain it without telling him my life story. "It's more like… A barrier, of sorts."

"A barrier?" I smiled warmly at him and ruffled his hair as I started to jog around again and throw knives.

"Yeah, a barrier." I didn't have to to say any more on the subject because just then Leorio walked out of the bushes - right next to the tree I was aiming at. He came out as I threw a knife at the tree, making him yelp.

"Oi, watch it!"

"I was," I retorted. "If I wasn't, you'd be a skewered shish-kabob!" Leorio huffed and made his way back over to the rest of us while I collected my knives.

XXX

It was a beautiful day when we reached Zaban city - it was a pity that I had to wear that stuffy hoodie. Right before we entered, the Kiriko family left, with the exception on the son so that he could lead us to the exam site.

Inside the city, I gaped at everything and joined Gon to run around and look at all the stalls, our guide saying something along the lines of how it was hard to get this far without a navigator. At the moment, I honestly didn't care.

"Ne, ne, Kurapika!" I tugged on his clothes excitedly, pointing over at different things. "What's that?"

"That's a video game,"

"What's a video game?"

"A game created by electronically manipulating images by a computer program on a television or other screened device." I sucked in an excited gasp.

"What's that?"

"Those are pompoms," He answered calmly, not at all fazed by the bright colours and loud noises surrounding us. It was almost overwhelming for me. I'd never been in a city that large before. "Small balls made out of varying types of material that are waved around and used to cheer people on."

 _"Ohhhh,"_ I pointed to another stall. "What's that?" This continued on for several minutes before I decided to join Gon again and get a better look.

There were so many stalls! Gon pulled me over to one when a man called out to the crowd.

"It's Zaban's well known Panda Frog on a Stick! A true delicacy!" He promoted, holding it up and showing it off. I chuckled when Gon tried to lift himself up higher to get a good look and took pity on him. I grabbed him around the waist, getting an "eh?!" and placed him on my shoulders to give him a better view.

"Thanks, Raze!" He held onto the top of my hood, leaning closer to the items. There was jewelry, food, and almost anything else you could think of! There was even a physic in one of the stalls! _Woah, they even have game areas!_

"You know, this is quite the shady place…" Leorio said, looking around and seeing a couple hooligans talking to a cute girl and her brother.

"Profitable cities usually attract all kinds of nasty people," Kurapika agreed, looking around also. I spotted some beef jerky and turned to Hiroshi pleadingly. He opened his mouth to say no, but froze when I used my puppy dog eyes.

 _"Pleeeeease?"_ I begged, coming closer. "Pretty please with a cherry on top?" He looked conflicted, but gave in after a moment, sighing as he handed over the money so that I could buy some. I let out a squeal of delight and gave him a quick hug before dashing over to the stall. The shop keeper was a sweet looking, plump old lady with a variety of foods all over her table.

"What cute boys," She smiled kindly at me and Gon, who had tagged along. "I'll give you an extra package for free." My eyes lit up and I thanked her delightedly. She just laughed and waved me off.

I was in a good mood after that and caught Hiroshi snickering at me a couple times as we walked to the site. I got a few odd glances from the others, most likely because I was purring - a natural reflex for me when I was happy. According to Hiroshi I would do it when I was upset or injured too, but wasn't really worried about that when I was, so I didn't really remember.

"What's that?" Gon asked innocently, ever curious.

"Only one of the most _amazing_ things ever created," I declared, much to Hiroshi's amusement. "Beef Jerky!" Kurapika looked at me inquisitively.

"Beef Jerky?" He glanced at the package in my hand. "I've heard of it, but I've never had it." I gaped at him in absolute horror.

"What've you been doing all your life?" I demanded, earning a raised eyebrow. I handed him a small piece and watched him expectantly. Kurapika looked at it skeptically, probably wondering how something that looked like that would taste good, but he ate it anyway. His eyes widened.

"It's good," He admitted slowly. I smiled triumphantly, putting the rest into my bag.

"I told you so!" Hiroshi shook his head at us but didn't comment and neither did Leorio who rolled his eyes.

XXX

We walked for a little longer until our navigator pointed at a group of buildings, one being incredibly tall and more important looking that the others.

"I believe… This… Is the building," He stated, not looking up from his small map that he had in his hands. I let out an impressed whistle.

"Ah, it's really tall!" Gon exclaimed, taking in the sheer size of it. "They have a really nice building!"

"So this is the exam site," Leorio added in almost a whisper. I noticed the Kiriko had started moving over to the small, rundown restaurant beside it. Hiroshi grabbed my hand and dragged me over as well, probably assuming that it was the actual building.

I watched them stand there for a couple minutes, making comments about how amazing it was, while I tried to see if I could smell anything. There were so many people in the city which made it hard to discern any scents from the other. I wrinkled my nose, smelling something like gasoline. _Gross._

"Hey, you guys," Our navigator called from the door, speaking over a particularly loud group of teenagers. "It's over here." He pointed at the rundown place as I chuckled. _Of course. It makes sense, when you think about it._ "Here."

"Wait, this isn't funny," Leorio protested, coming over regardless. "Isn't that an ordinary restaurant? You can't possibly think that applicants from across the globe are meant to assemble _here?"_ He growled. He really had to get that fixed, directing his anger at someone else wasn't nice… Maybe I'd get a spray bottle.

"I do."

"Eh?"

"No one would expect the Hunter exam, with its millions of applicants to be located here, right?"

"That's true," Leorio admitted grudgingly.

XXX

Inside the restaurant was an old fashioned setup, a small table with two chairs beside it or possibly four if it was a larger table. The bar was a clean and warm crimson colour, the customers sitting along the side of it. The patrons glanced up at us for a moment before returning to their conversations, deeming us uninteresting.

"Is the back room open?" Our navigator called from the door, not moving from where we entered. The chef looked us over carefully, lifting his eyes from the chicken that was being fried.

"What will you have?"

"The steak combo that opens your eyes to the light," Our navigator answered confidently. "For five."

"For five…" The chef repeated slowly to himself, nodding. "How would you like them?" Our guide smirked, holding a single finger up.

"Grilled over a low flame, until cooked." The chef nodded again, going back to cooking the meal for his customer.

"Got it. Let yourself into the back room." The Kiriko started walking, prompting the rest of us to follow, Gon and I looking around at our surroundings in interest.

"That was probably the password, huh," I hummed to myself as we entered a smaller red room that had a round table in the centre. It smelled like a lot of things but it looked like it had been neglected for a long time. "That's sad, the food here smells really good."

"Probably," Hiroshi agreed, going over and touching it. "Unless he really wanted steak." I swatted him as I moved to sit down at the table, noting that it moved when I bumped into it. _Cool!_ I started to move it around, making Hiroshi stumble. I stuck my tongue out at him when he sighed.

Oh, wait. We just missed a chunk of conversation. Oh well.

"You've done extremely well for first timers," The red-eyed Kiriko praised us, not that I knew why this'd come up. He gave us all a grin, moving to go out the door. "Well, good luck." Gon raised his hand to the older male, smiling happily at him.

"Thanks!" He chirped, and the navigator looked dumbstruck for some reason. Maybe he'd never been thanked before, since the others just considered him a tool? He smiled warmly back at Gon and took his hand.

"I would be happy to serve as your Navigator next year as well," He said gently, having obviously grown fond of Gon.

"We won't need one next year," I butted in, grinning at him. "We're all going to pass!" He chuckled and walked out, waving goodbye to us quickly as he left. Just as soon as he was gone, the room shook and something mechanical started up, making me jump.

"It appears this room is an elevator," Kurapika deduced, scanning the corners of the room and looking at the display above the doors.

"Well, yeah," I plopped myself down in one of the seats around the table as Hiroshi spoke. _It feels weeeeird. I've never been in an elevator before!_ "Even Leorio would be able to tell that." Leorio twitched, but didn't acknowledge Hiroshi's comment as he sat down.

"Bastard," He grumbled, crossing his arms. It was unclear if he was referring to the Kiriko or Hiroshi. "That meant that he expects us to fail this year."

"Once every three years," Kurapika interjected coolly.

"Huh?"

"The frequency with which a rookie passes the exam."

"It's that unusual?" Gon pondered, switching his gaze to Kurapika. I whistled. _That's pretty low,_ I mused. I glanced at Hiroshi, who sat beside Kurapika. He shook his head, probably meaning that he hadn't known either.

"Some cannot endure the exam's physical and mental strain," Kurapika informed us, looking each and every one of us in the eyes. "It's also not unusual for veterans to "break" the rookies, who consequently never retake the test." I frowned. Since we were rookies, and not mention, weak looking ones, so people would probably target us… Kurapika, Gon and I specifically.

Leorio was tough looking enough to get away without people going after him for the most part, and Hiroshi was muscled and had animal parts. I doubted anyone would mess with him without thinking twice.

That left three of us.

Kurapika was more feminine and fragile looking, which would definitely draw attention, assuming that females were fewer in numbers than males. From what I could tell, he would probably be mostly fine on his own thanks to his wits, but if a group attacked him, he would be screwed.

Gon was a little boy who was barely old enough to take the exam, that itself being a spectacle. He, as far as I knew, had super human abilities, but I didn't know how strong he was. Going by age level, he was most likely weaker than most of the people who were in the exam, which worried me.

Finally, myself. I was wearing all black, plus something that hid my face fairly well, along with a backpack. I was also small in stature compared to boys, but my family had trained their children to be self-sufficient. I could probably handle most things on my own, but better safe than sorry.

 _Knowing Kurapika, he's more inclined to stay on the safe side, which would mean a larger group, while the Gon and Leorio would go off on their own but Leorio wouldn't get very far,_ I mused, lost in my thoughts. _If we got separated, the best plan would be to have Hiroshi stay with Leorio and Kurapika, and Gon stay with me, taking our speed levels into account._ I furrowed my eyebrows. _There's no way that Hiroshi could keep up with Gon when he was running full speed, and I have crappy defence, so I guess it'll work, but-_

My thoughts were cut off by Kurapika moving close to me, sticking his face right in front of mine, making my heart skip a beat. I jumped and jerked away out of surprise.

"Gah, Kurapika," I breathed, placing a hand on my heart, trying to slow it down. "You always scare the crap out of me." He raised an eyebrow.

"I would hope not," Kurapika teased, a glint of amusement in his eyes from my word choice. "That would be a rather unpleasant ordeal." I flushed, feeling my ears and face turn hot.

"Shut up, that's not what I meant!" I groaned, tugging the hood lower, making sure that it covered my face. Kurapika chuckled and faced the group again, Gon opening his mouth to speak.

"So I guess candidates are willing to risk anything to become Hunters," Leorio grinned and stood up as if on cue.

"But of course, my friend!" Leorio slammed his hands down on the table in front of us, leaning forwards with a stupid look on his face. He was probably imagining something weird. "Hunters make the most money in this world!" He giggled creepily.

"No!" Kurapika disagreed fervently, standing up as well. "Hunters are the most noble in this world." He argued, leaning forwards as well.

"Glory hog…" Leorio spat.

"Money grubber!" Kurapika growled, getting much more worked up than I thought he would. _Maybe I should just slowly back away before things get nasty…_ Poor Gon and I were stuck in the middle with Hiroshi- who was slowly scooching backward, the _traitor._

"Gon, Raze! Listen!" Leorio demanded, coming right in our personal space and spat in faces. I flinched at the sudden loss of space and the sharp tone. I shot backward, feeling my body tense and my heart rate explode. "Every year, over fifty Hunters make the list of the world's hundred richest people!" Kurapika swiveled the table, pulling Leorio back, much to my relief.

"Hunters are associated with hunting wild game and treasure," Kurapika lectured calmly yet passionately from his side of the table, Gon looking just as happy as I was to get his personal space back. "But they are all second rate." The blonde turned to look each and every one of us in the eye. "True Hunters work to protect people and the natural order!"

"Now look here!" Leorio's voice raised in volume, leaning in very close to us again. Spit was flying from his mouth as he spoke. "Once you're a Hunter, most countries will give you a free pass, and no charge to use public facilities!" _Sounds like the poor shopkeepers are being terrorized by Hunters. I have to wonder if they agreed to this or if it was decided without their knowledge._ "How are those benefits?!" Leorio stumbled backward once more, making startled noise as be moved back.

"Hunters have many difficult and important responsibilities," Kurapika held a finger up in the air, now completely into the fight. "Such as preserving cultural artifacts and endangered species as well as capturing wanted criminals and unscrupulous Hunters." _Wow, big words._

"The fame and money, that's why people wish to become Hunters!" Kurapika scowled, leaning forward as well.

"Profound knowledge, a healthy mind and body, and an unyielding conviction… Those are the qualities on which Hunters pride themselves!" Both of the two boys growled and glared at each other.

 **"Gon! Raze! What do you think?"** I shifted uncomfortably, Gon doing the same. **"What kind of Hunter do you hope to become?!"**

"What am I, chopped liver?" Hiroshi muttered from behind.

"Can't you do both?" I whimpered, letting out a low whine, not liking the attention. I could feel my throat close up. "Different people have different reasons and different lives so it makes sense that some would do either one of those." I paused, sinking into my chair. "I'm not doing this for either of those reasons." Gon stammered, trying to melt into his chair.

"W-Well, when you put it that way…"

 _Ding!_

Luckily for him, the elevator dinged just as he was about to answer, sparing him from his horrible fate.

"I think we've arrived," Kurapika straightened up, Leorio following suit.

"We'll continue this later," Leorio promised, striding over to the door. Gon breathed a sigh of relief and I laughed, my best friend heading to the door as well.

XXX

 _Woah, the atmosphere in here is scary,_ I thought, biting my nails nervously, taking in the almost complete silence of the hundreds of people who were now standing before me. Most of them, as I assumed before, were older men who instantly made a snap judgment on us. I saw their eyes flicker past Leorio and Hiroshi, then lock on Kurapika, Gon, and I. _Looks like I was right._

Leorio was the first to walk forward, his briefcase swung over his shoulder. Just off of it, I could make out a slight bulge in the shape of a circle in one of the outer pockets. _So he put the whistle in his briefcase, huh? I guess he would be able to get it for the most part._ I felt a warm feeling at the thought that he actually kept it and resisted the urge to grin like an idiot.

"Strange atmosphere down here," Leorio scanned the room which was dark and looked almost like an abandoned sewer system. There were also what looked like large pipes lining the sides of the tunnel, leading down the path to a dead end.

"They clearly differ from the Hunter applicants we saw at the port and the city," Kurapika added in a hushed whisper, not wanting to disturb the other applicants. I nodded and tugged on Hiroshi's toga-like clothing. He glanced at me, then nodded, understanding what I wanted. I switched over to the blond teen as well.

"Pika," I poked his shoulder gently, catching his attention. "I'm gonna go look around." He nodded, placing a hand on my shoulder to halt me.

"Be wary, these people are stronger than we've met before." Heh. Kurapika's given up trying to get rid of my nicknames. "Each is a master, in their own right…" I gave him a mock salute and slipped into the crowd, looking around at the different people.

Might as well see who's dangerous, _right?_

 _XXX EXTRA XXX_

"Piipii?" Raze mused, on the Kiriko, making Kurapika sigh. The brown haired girl had been going on for what felt like at _least_ ten minutes. "No, that doesn't sound right… How about Rap or Kura?" It was starting to get on his nerves and plus she had horrible naming sense.

"For the last time, I don't need a nickname," Kurapika huffed, leaning forwards on the back of the beast. "My name is perfectly fine." Raze shook her head against his back, still holding onto him. He could feel her body vibrating from — was she _purring?_

"Nope, your name is more than three syllables long, so you need a nickname," She informed him with a childish smile. "Ku-ra-pi-ka. That's four."

"What about Leorio?" Kurapika almost groaned, partially regretting choosing her as his seat partner now. _Maybe I should've convinced Hiroshi or Gon to sit with me, they're quieter- or at least wouldn't make up ridiculous names._ "He has a name with more than four syllables."

"Ah, but he already has one, remember?" She poked his cheek, which was surprisingly soft. "He's the Oreo."

"What on earth is an Oreo?" Kurapika muttered under his breath, Raze not commenting on it. "And isn't that as long as his name?"

"So?"

"…"

After that, Kurapika stayed silent for the rest of the ride, including when Raze started humming obnoxiously to try to bug him. She had to wonder if he had a little sibling in the past that made him have a ridiculous amount of patience.

XXX

 **[A/n]: Poor Kurapika, he has to deal with a lot of her crap. Oh well, it's not like this is gonna follow the cannon for too much long *nudge nudge* *wink wink***

 **[Hiroshi]: Please review or F/F if you liked it.**

 **[A/n]: Come to think of it, you don't really say much, do you Hiroshi? Oh well, you get your time to shine soon enough. THANKS FOR READING!**


	5. Rivals X For X Survival - Part Two!

**[A/n]: Thanks to Tory476, Sho12, Crystal-fairy-hime, and LlamaChickenPie for favouriting/following!**

 **Reviews!**

 **Isella of the wolf tribe: Yeah, let's just say Kurapika wasn't exactly impressed with Raze that night.**

 **[Kurapika]: I was** ** _not_** **impressed. If Basil were there, she wouldn't have created so many ridiculous names.**

 **[Raze]: You're so mean! Who do you like better, Basil or me?!**

 **[Kurapika]: Basil.**

 **[Raze]: T-T**

 **[A]: Wow, ruthless 0-0 You just started a bloodbath, bro. Anyway, thank you for reviewing! Hope you enjoy this chapter!**

 _Chapter Five,_

 _Rivals X For X Survival - Part two!_

XXX

 _Creak…_

"Dear, don't you think it's time to forgive her?" A middle-aged man in a clean, pristine suit stood behind a rose-haired woman sitting in a rocking chair. She didn't look up to the man, only calmly turning the page of her large leather book.

"Forgive whom?" The blond-haired man let out a tired sigh, pinching the bridge of his nose. His wife always became so stubborn when it came to her children. "I don't know what you're talking about, Aoi." Aoi scowled.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about, Satchiko," He said, his frown creasing his face, making the wrinkles on his weathered face more prominent. "It's been almost five years since you've last seen her over a stupid, petty argument. I still can't believe it escalated to the point where that friend of her insisted that she move to his village." Satchiko snapped her book shut sharply.

"Ah, that child," She hummed as if it had only occurred to her after his explanation. "Forgive her, and then have her trash our way of life again? Our values? Do you expect me to give up all of this—" The woman gestured to the luxurious and overly expensive furniture around them. "Just so that it would improve her opinion on me? Should I bow to her too?" She said, shaking her head. "Aoi, you're just blinded by a parental love." Aoi grit his teeth in frustration.

He loved his wife very much, but sometimes he just wanted to smack some sense into her. Arguing with your youngest child about someone who was now dead was ridiculous, no matter how much they all loved him. It had been five and a half years since their youngest son died, and four and a half since Satchiko and his daughter had last seen each other. Both had left with battered bodies, feelings, and shredded clothes.

However, he did know that she missed their daughter. Satchiko still had the pictures of her hanging in the house, along with her siblings. Aoi would often catch her staring at one and tearing up, then trying to hide it behind a wall of ice when someone came near.

"Satchiko—"

"Enough. I'm not going to discuss this any further."

XXX

Hiroshi stood silently as he watched Raze chat with Kurapika, then walk away into the group of dangerous applicants. He was a little worried about her going on her own but he doubted that she would cause a ruckus in such a large room.

 _She's getting rather attached to them, isn't she?_ He mused, recalling how she smiled at the group. The purple haired boy found it odd how quickly she'd warmed up to them in only a few days. He could only hope that she'd stay wary and not let her guard down around them. If she did, they might be caught, and if they were caught— well, Hiroshi didn't want to think about it.

Gon wasn't going to be a problem even if she did slip up, Hiroshi doubted that the innocent and naive boy would know them, let alone report them.

The doctor wasn't going to be a problem either. His intelligence, from what he could tell, was fairly low and if he found out, the shark-toothed boy was certain he could… _Silence_ … Him and cover it up.

He glanced over to his right to the blond Kurta, who was chatting with the little pup, Gon. That was the one he would have to keep an eye on. He had extensive knowledge and was fairly intelligent. One slip up and he would figure it out, but it seemed like he had a soft spot for Raze, so he might not report her if worst came to worst.

"Excuse me," A voice jolted Hiroshi out of his thoughts and he looked over at the source of the sound. "Please take a number." A little green bean-like thing held out a pin that had the numbers "407" on it. _I guess Raze already grabbed hers._ "Be sure to wear it on your chest at all times, please be careful not to lose it."

XXX

I made my way through the grouchy crowd, putting the tag I was given inside of my bag. They really needed to lighten up, it was like a funeral in there.

I scanned the room, looking for potential allies and enemies. It was always better to make more allies than enemies, in my opinion. Especially if I could use them.

 _Well, looks like I could take on the majority of them, but I should be careful with a few of them, like that giant guy munching on chicken wings or the old guy over there,_ I noted, looking around. _They'd kick my butt into next week even if I would love to fight them._

The problem with being focused mainly on agility and speed was that it typically made you weaker in terms of defence and strength. Then again, I was a bit of an adrenaline junkie, so I loved the thrill of fighting someone much stronger than me. Unluckily for me, that type of thinking gave me quite a few broken bones and bruises from Hiroshi and many of the other villagers. _No pain, no gain, I guess._ Well, actually it was partially because I was such a little shit when I was little — scratch that, I still am, I just hide it better.

"Haven't seen you guys around before," A loud chubby man made his way over in the direction of my friends, making me curious. He was wearing a blue over-shirt and his number was 16. Mine was 406. _Eh, he looks boring._

I turned and walked around some more, looking for someone I wanted to talk to. Most of them would just glare at me and turn away when I got near them which was no fun.

While I was looking the other way, I tripped and hit someone on the side.

"I'm sorry," I apologized quickly, being polite out of habit. Hiroshi's dad had beaten it into me when I was younger because I was such a brat. It didn't seem to have sank into Hiroshi, though.

"It's quite alright, dearie," A fiery, red-haired man knelt down to my level, being much taller than I was. He was probably around six feet tall. "What's your name?"

"I'm Raze," I answered cheerfully. He was pretty cool looking. "Is your hair natural?" I asked curiously, surprised that someone could have hair that bright. "It looks like a sunset - are your eyes natural too?" He blinked, probably not expecting that response, then chuckled.

"Why yes, they are," He hummed interestedly as he took in my appearance. "And what's a little kit like you doing at the Hunter Exam?"

 _"Do you see him?"_

 _"Yeah, that kid's crazy to be talking to him!"_

"You seem to be well known," I said, hearing the whispers around us. _Interesting… Perhaps I could use his help._ "What's your name?" He smiled at me, almost warmly.

"My name is Hisoka, little one~" He said smoothly. "But you still haven't answered my question. What are you doing here, and what are you hiding under that hood of yours~?" I frowned at him.

"That was more than one question," I protested, earning another chuckle from the golden-eyed man.

"You may ask me another question if you answer mine," Hisoka said with a smirk, placing a hand on his waist. _Damn_ , he was **smokin'** _hot_. I mean, uh, I should make friends with him because he looked strong. Yep. Definitely not just talking to him because he was amazingly good looking.

"I need to become stronger to protect the people I care about," I said to him, carefully choosing my wording. "And I don't like the attention, so I wear my hood up. Where do you get your face paint? It looks awesome."

 _"Doesn't he know who that guy is?"_

 _"He must be a rookie."_

 _"Oh well, one less competitor for us, he's gonna get crushed."_

"I see, I see, you're a funny girl," Hisoka laughed, patting me on the head. "I didn't expect to see one of the Kikuchi Concern here, let alone the disowned princess," He said, lowering his voice so that nobody else caught it. I felt the colour drain out of my face as I jerked backward, eyeing him warily. "Oh, don't try to hide it, Raspberry-chan~! I won't tell anyone, but in exchange," Hisoka leaned forwards, licking his lips. "You owe me a favour that I can ask for at any time." _A favour?_ I let my facade drop, the smile instantly changing into a wary scowl.

"What kind of favour?" I asked, wanting to know more about what I was getting into before I agreed. There wasn't much he could ask for since I didn't have full access to my family's power but it was still dangerous.

"Oh, it could be anything," Hisoka waved his hand flippantly, not really concerned. "I won't ask for you to fail or hurt any of your… Buddies, if that's what you're asking." I mulled it over for a moment. It probably wouldn't hurt me to do it, and gaining an ally would be nice.

"Okay," I said. "But in addition to that, how about we help each other through the exam?" He raised his eyebrows, his smirk widening.

"Hoh?"

"That way, we'll be mutually beneficial," I told him. "I'm not all that strong, but I can go places you can't, you attract too much attention. By the way, I think your eyebrows are trying to escape off your face."

 _"He's freaking insane!"_

 _"Is he trying to make a deal with Hisoka?!"_

"Seriously, what did you do to make all these people either hate or be absolutely terrified of you?" _I might not be all that inconspicuous after this, though._

"Saa, who knows?" He said, not sparing a glance at the eavesdroppers. "I think I'll take your deal, Raspberry-chan." Hisoka giggled, making me shiver— and not in a good way. _Why do I feel like I just made a deal with the devil?_ "Well, I must be on my way, Jaa-ne, my little fruit~!"

"…I get the feeling that I am _so_ going to regret this."

XXX

"-Well, there are many more, but they have taken the test the most times," Tompa said, pointing out a few of the older hunter candidates. I could see Hiroshi making a mental note of a few of them as I drew closer, putting his hand on his katana out of habit.

Hiroshi tended to do that a lot. Putting his hand on his weapon, I mean. _I guess it makes him feel safer,_ I mused.

I bounced over to the group again, moving so that I was behind Leorio. I tiptoed over quietly so that he wouldn't hear me, but Kurapika noticed me and raised a questioning eyebrow. I placed a finger to my lips and made an almost silent "shh"ing sound. The corner of his mouth twitched upwards into an entertained smile and he nodded discreetly. Gon seemed to notice me too but he just giggled.

I made my way directly behind Leorio, preparing myself. With a massive leap, I landed on his back and whispered directly in his ear.

 _"My precioussssssss."_ I hissed, making him flip out. Leorio flailed his limbs wildly, almost smacking Gon in the process as I fell off his back.

"What the hell?!" Leorio screeched, spinning around to see what happened. "You!" He accused, pointing his famous finger at me in frustration. "What what that for?!" I shrugged.

"I wanted to see what you would do," I said as I grinned. "Now I know that if we get ambushed, you'll be the last to notice." I laughed at the irritation written all over his face and moved over to the only blond in our group, slinging an arm around his shoulders. "Even Pika noticed before you did!" Leorio whipped around to glare at Kurapika, who still had the amused smile on his lips.

"Why you little-"

Whatever _terrifying_ threat he was going to make, Leorio was cut off by a horrible blood curdling scream from the other side of the room. I jumped and unconsciously grabbed at Kurapika's sleeve as the scent of blood wafted over to us. _Oh, I don't like this, I don't like this at all._

There was a fizzing noise and when I fixed my gaze over where the sound had come from, I saw little red flower petals taking the place of the arms of a wailing man. He stared at his arms in shock as they changed into the little petals and flew across the room. The other examines crowded around the man, but left him enough space to breathe.

 _"Ara,_ how peculiar," A shiver ran down my spine again, letting me know instantly who's voice it was. "His arms seem to have become flower petals." The redhead unfolded his arms and gestured to the entire crowd. "No smoke and mirrors here,~"

"Hisoka…" I breathed, leaning forwards, trying to get a better look at the smirking man with a star on his right cheek and a teardrop on his left. I felt my heart start pumping faster, although whether from exhilaration or fear I couldn't tell. _Damn,_ I allowed myself an excited, yet shaky grin, hearing Gon suck in a shocked gasp. _I really did make a deal with the devil._

"Do take care," I could swear that he looked over at me when he said this, "When you bump into someone, you really should apologize." I felt my heart skip a beat and made a mental note to thank Hiroshi's dad for beating my manners into me.

"That psychopath is back again," The man in the blue shirt from before said shakily, looking terrified of my new… Friend? Yep. The crazy sexy psychopath was now my friend. Way to go, me.

"Again?" Gon asked, glancing up at him. Kurapika and Leorio turned to him, and I realized I was still holding onto the Kurta's shirt. I muttered an embarrassed "sorry" and let go, not catching the curious look he sent me for knowing Hisoka's name. He would probably interrogate me later.

"Does that mean he took last year's exam too?" Kurapika asked, taking an interest in fuzzy eyebrows.

"Number 44. Hisoka, the magician," Tompa said, scowling over at the redhead. _The magician? He looks more like a jester to me._ "Last year, he was a virtual lock to pass the exam until he all but killed an examiner he didn't like."

"A-And they're still letting him retake the exam this year?!" Leorio looked like he was angry, but he sounded scared instead.

"Why not?" Hiroshi said from the sidelines. I think he has a bad habit of being forgotten because he's so quiet all the time. "The examiners and the content change every year, so it wouldn't make sense to hold him back because of a grudge." The bushy eyebrow guy nodded in agreement.

"And the examiners are the ones who choose the new content. The devil himself could pass if that were the examiners' determination. That's just how the Hunter Exam works." He turned away from Hisoka who was walking towards a wall, most likely to sit and rest. "Anyway, nobody likes him. You should stay away from him too." _Ahahahaha…_ Hiroshi sent me a look, probably guessing that I already met him or he might've heard the commotion from before. _Whoops,_ I thought sheepishly and gave him a charming grin. Hiroshi groaned almost inaudibly, knowing that I'd definitely managed to get tangled up with the most disliked and dangerous person here.

"He looks dangerous, that much is for sure," Leorio said, watching him. Hiroshi shifted so he was in between Leorio and I.

"Considering he just turned a man's arms into flower petals, I'd say yeah, he's just a little dangerous,"

"Oh, right," Bushy eyebrows faced me as I was partially hidden behind Kurapika. "Who's this?"

"This is Raze," Gon said, a large grin on his face. I couldn't help but notice how much nicer his eyes were compared to… Well, never mind. "S… He's our friend too!" _Oh? Is Gon going to pretend that I'm a guy? Interesting._ I knew that Gon was actually much more intelligent than he liked to act and —did he just _smirk?_

Bushy eyebrows sized me up, still smiling. I nodded in acknowledgment. "Raze, this is Tompa-san!"

"I see!" Tompa rummaged through his bags and pulled out cans of what looked like orange juice. "A little something to mark our acquaintance," He offered me one, but I shook my head after Hiroshi gripped my arm tightly. He must've seen something if he didn't want me to take one. "How about it?"

"Oh, appreciated!" Leorio took it trustingly, not assuming there might be any other intentions behind it. "As it happened, I was thirsty!" Tompa handed one to Kurapika and Gon, and offered one to Hiroshi.

"No thanks," He declined politely. "I don't take food or drink from those I don't trust."

"O-Oh, that's alright," Tompa laughed nervously, making my suspicions grow.

" _There he goes."_ I heard an applicant say from behind us. _What?_ I perked up my ears discreetly.

 _"He always plays the nice guy, despite being nastier than anyone else here."_ My eyes widened.

 _"Tompa, the rookie crusher."_

"Kurapika, let me see your can," I said, snatching it from him with only a weak protest in return. I looked it over, seeing no odd holes or covering, and it didn't smell weird from the outside. I shook it and put it against my ear, hearing fizzing, what you would normally hear from a carbonated drink. Kurapika gently took it out of my grasp, shooting me a curious look and I scowled.

"Best of luck to all of us!" Tompa said, smirking after they toasted. Hiroshi came over and pulled me away from them, standing off to the side with me.

"If he really did put something in the drink-"

"You heard them too, Hiro!"

"Yes, but-"

"You _know_ something is in there."

"Yes, I know, Raze," He sighed, wrapping an arm around my shoulder. "But without any evidence, I doubt they would stop. It would only make your… Friends… unhappy."

"…"

"Besides, worst case scenario, we go on without them. We can't afford to fail this Exam." He squeezed my arm. "I don't want to lose you again." I pressed my lips together.

"…If we end up getting separated, I want you to go with Leorio and Kurapika."

"What?"

"Leorio is weak," I said bluntly. "It'll be a miracle if he even passes the exam. He's a regular civilian but if you stay with him, you can help him. Kurapika will probably stay with Leorio if we get separated because you guys don't have the speed to catch up to Gon." I said to Hiroshi, looking him in his amber, almost yellow eyes. "I'm the only one who would be able to keep up with Gon and keep him safe. I may not be the strongest here, but I can still protect him."

"Raze, that's too dangerous! What if something happens?" Hiroshi argued, his pupils dilating in agitation, nostrils flaring. _If I could drop this docile facade, I would probably be able to win this argument._

"Hiroshi… Do I need to use an owed favour?"

"No…" He growled. "Fine. But if anything happens, you're my first priority over the others." I smiled at my best friend.

"Thank you." I poked his cheek and grinned at him, enjoying teasing him. He sent me an annoyed glare and huffed but I could see a small smile hidden on his face.

XXX

Raze and Hiroshi gave each other warm smiles and goofed around with each other, not aware of the suspicions that they had kindled in Kurapika.

He'd noticed their weird behaviour around Tompa when he arrived. Raze was unusually quiet and wary of the man along with rejecting his drink while Hiroshi had been silent the entire time and rejected the drink as well.

 _Along with that, Raze stole my drink and scrutinized it as if there was something inside it she didn't like._ Kurapika glanced over at the man who was laughing. _Then there must be something in this drink,_ He rationalized, pausing to look at the juice. _I suppose if there was anything in it, Gon would be the first to know._ He switched his silver-eyed gaze to the sweet boy who was drinking it.

There was a long beat as he watched the doe-eyed boy.

 _"Bleauhhhhghhhhh!"_ Gon spat out the juice and let it pour from his mouth into the floor like a waterfall. Tompa looked surprised and taken aback but Kurapika supposed that anyone would be a little startled from that. "Tompa-san, this juice must've expired," Gon looked up at the older male with an apologetic smile. "It tastes funny." With that, Leorio shot out the juice in his mouth like a power spray, making Raze giggle with delight on the side. _How much juice can he hold in his mouth?_

On a side note, Kurapika was pretty much certain that there was no way Raze was going to be able to pass as male, judging by her face shape and stature. If Raze was a little younger, maybe Gon's age, she could pass off the slightly higher voice for not hitting puberty but at fifteen, it was a little odd. It was a pretty low voice for a female, though, so he suspected that she lowered it to sound more masculine. _Then again,_ He sighed inwardly, _I'm not exactly incredibly masculine myself._

"Seriously?" Leorio wiped his mouth with his sleeve to get rid of any traces of it on his lips. "That was close!"

"H-Huh?" Tompa said, looking a little fearful. "That's strange." He laughed -very fakely, to Kurapika's eyes- and rubbed his neck "sheepishly". _He's a rather bad actor,_ Kurapika thought to himself as he tipped the juice out of his can and onto the floor. _It's lucky we have Gon, who has naturally attuned himself to nature, increasing his senses._ The little boy was staring into the juice can with one eye as if looking for something in there.

"Gon, what on earth are you looking for?" Raze asked, having wandered back to the group with Hiroshi, and wrapped her arms around the boy she'd grown attached to. "There's nothing in there besides some _medicine."_ She smirked over in Tompa's direction, having guessed what was in there. He could have used a poison, but that wouldn't be as fun for a rookie crusher, as the rumours in the room said.

"Medicine?" Gon repeated, looking puzzled. Tompa threw a glare over at her, cursing her in his mind. _Raze must've been right,_ Kurapika deduced, watching the interaction.

"I'm so very sorry!" Tompa apologized, bending down low to bow. "I didn't realize the juice had gone bad," He lied.

"It's okay, you don't have to apologize," Gon forgave him very easily, not even thinking for a moment that it wasn't the truth. "Is your stomach okay?"

"Y-Yes… I'm fine." _Sweet kid,_ Kurapika smiled at him, having grown fond of him. _Worried about others even if they're not actually his allies. I can only hope that this world doesn't corrupt him like it did to me…_ His expression darkened a little, frightening the overweight male.

"I've sampled all kinds of mountain grasses and plants," Gon said to Tompa, grinning proudly. "So I can usually tell when something's bad." _Impressive._

"R-Really? That's amazing." Tompa's smile turned into a scary scowl for a split second before it changed back. "Sorry about that again, I'll see you around."

"Seeya, bushy eyebrows," Raze said loudly, making the man growl.

"Raze, that wasn't nice!"

"It's true."

"Talkative old man…" Leorio said, hunched over again.

"Like you're one to talk," Hiroshi quipped, still less than pleased about whatever he and Raze had chatted about.

 _Hiroshi…_ That guy was still a mystery to Kurapika. He would be friendly and polite(ish) around Raze, occasionally joining to tag-team Leorio, but otherwise, he was quiet and didn't speak much. From what Kurapika could tell, he was very protective of Raze and he was strong, judging by his well-toned muscles that were underneath his shirt. His sword seemed to be his only weapon other than his above average sense of smell.

The three things the blond found odd was that he'd never heard of this "Nakamura" clan before. He'd heard tales of demi-humans and villages, but he'd never heard of a _clan_ in the Republic of Padokea. Demi-humans were found all over the continents, so they weren't all that rare, but the majority of all the demi-humans and whatnot were over in the Azain continent or South Western Padokea.

Secondly, why were they hiding so many things? They hid where they came from, their last names, Raze's race, and they were definitely doing the Hunter exam for more than just leaving home and getting away with certain crimes. Going by what he knew of races, they appeared to be from Jappon or the southwestern Yorbian continent from their appearances and clothing.

Finally, what was that anklet? Raze always got jittery and nervous whenever they brought it up.

 _"It isn't a bracelet, exactly…" Raze trailed off, looking a little at a loss how to explain it. "It's more like… A barrier, I suppose."_

A barrier? What did she mean by that? Was Raze an incredibly dangerous super being?

Kurapika glanced over to his right, where Raze was mimicking Leorio mockingly who was lecturing Gon about who knows what. Seeing Kurapika, Raze winked at him with an impish grin and proceeded to fall on her face. He bit back a laugh at her immediately sticking her hand up in the air and shouting,

"I'm okay!" She brushed the dust off of the front of her black hoodie but missed the back entirely.

"Ano, Raze, your back is all covered in dirt," Gon pointed out.

"Ehh? Really?"

 _Nope, there's_ no way _Raze is an incredibly overpowered super being._ He concluded, watching her attempts to get it off. _It must just be a coincidence that she happened to meet Hiso-_ Kurapika paused, realizing he forgot about something.

"Raze, may I ask you a question?"

 **XXX**

 **[A/n]: You know, according to the hunter wiki, Tompa first took the exam at ten years old and his age is 46 in the first episode we see him. Kinda sad, when you think about it. Why did he want to take the Hunter exam in the first place and what was he like before he took it? Damn it, Togashi, I want answers!**

 **Also, I feel like the characters were kind of OOC in this one, so sorry if they were!**

 **[Kurapika]: Thanks to all readers, lurkers, reviews, and others for reading!**

 **[Gon]: Please F/F if you liked it, and drop in a review!**


	6. I X Hate X Running!

**Thanks to Bonzy, Ookami-25, SlightlyYandereMelissa, RedRaptor711, kinbarii. tan, OperaEagle IcelynLacelett, Lexi Evans908, llFanFicsForLifell, kopycat101, neonkoi, InuKailani, and Nycel for F/F!**

 **Reviews (before edits):**

 **SuperGeneralJoker: March break should be longer… Hang in there until your break T-T Thanks for the compliment :) I try!**

 **(After edits)**

 **Purifiredwate: Thank you! I'm glad you're enjoying the story, and I was a little worried that they were OOC last chapter, so that makes me feel better :) Thanks for reviewing!**

 **Isella of the wolf tribe: Yeah, there must've been different rules 'cause otherwise it doesn't really make any sense, does it? Thanks for reviewing!**

 **OperaEagle IcelynLacelet: Thanks! Don't worry, there'll definitely be some action in the future since Raze loves to fight — even though she gets her butt kicked most of the time.**

 **[Raze]: Hey!**

 **[A]: I'm not planning on giving up on the story, however, the updates will start slowing down again because I'll be at my cottage, then at school. Also, Raze isn't exactly a "princess", per say (her family's pretty damn rich, though). By family power, are you referring to the "barrier" around her ankle? That'll be explained in a much later chapter :3 Thanks for reviewing!**

 **Red Distress: Not quite, but similar — I'll tell you right now that Raze's total strength is pretty much the same as the average full grown male. She's not all that strong. (I had to do some research on that, lol. I'm gonna watch that Saiyuki thing now, it looks interesting.)**

 **There's something else that the bracelet/anklet is hiding, and it's not any power/strength.**

 _Chapter Six,_

 _I X Hate X Running_

 _XXX_

 **Recap:**

 _Hiroshi… That guy was still a mystery to Kurapika. He would be friendly and polite(ish) around Raze, occasionally joining to tag-team Leorio, but otherwise, he was quiet and didn't speak much. From what Kurapika could tell, he was very protective of Raze and he was strong, judging by his well-toned muscles that were underneath his shirt. His sword seemed to be his only weapon other than his above average sense of smell._

 _The three things the blond found odd was that he'd never heard of this "Nakamura" clan before. He'd heard tales of demi-humans and villages, but he'd never heard of a clan in the Republic of Padokea. Demi-humans were found all over the continents, so they weren't all that rare, but the majority of all the demi-humans and whatnot were over in the Azain continent or South Western Padokea._

 _Secondly, why were they hiding so many things? They hid where they came from, their last names, Raze's race, and they were definitely doing the Hunter exam for more than just leaving home and getting away with certain crimes. Going by what he knew of races, they appeared to be from Jappon or the south western Yorbian continent from their appearances and clothing._

 _Finally, what was that anklet? Raze always got jittery and nervous whenever they brought it up._

"It isn't a bracelet, exactly…" Raze trailed off, looking a little at a loss how to explain it. "It's more like… A barrier, I suppose."

 _A barrier? What did she mean by that? Was Raze an incredibly dangerous super being?_

 _Kurapika glanced over to his right, where Raze was mimicking Leorio mockingly who was lecturing Gon about who knows what. Seeing Kurapika, Raze winked at him with an impish grin and proceeded to fall on her face. He bit back a laugh at her immediately sticking her hand up in the air and shouting,_

 _"I'm okay!" She brushed the dust off of the front of her black hoodie but missed the back entirely._

 _"Ano, Raze, your back is all covered in dirt," Gon pointed out._

 _"Ehh? Really?"_

 _Nope, there's no way Raze is an incredibly overpowered super being, he concluded, watching her attempts to get it off. It must just be coincidence that she happened to meet Hiso- Kurapika paused, realizing he forgot about something._

 _"Raze, may I ask you a question?"_

XXX

I continued to brush myself off even when I heard Kurapika say something to me, ignoring all the eyes that were on the five of us.

"Shoot."

"Why did you know that man's name?" He asked, standing off to the side of our group, reminding me of Hiroshi for a moment.

"Which man?" I asked, gesturing to the vast amount of males in the room. There were maybe… Three or four females other than me, and I didn't really count since I was kind-of disguised as a dude. "There are many men in this… Whatever this is. A sewer?"

"Hisoka," Kurapika said, his face almost blank, as if he was assessing me for some reason. "How did you know who he was before Tompa-san explained?" I blinked, forgetting that they weren't with me.

"Eh? Raze, you know Hisoka?" Gon asked curiously, joining the conversation.

"Seriously?" Leorio said, looking a little nervous. "T-Then, d-does that mean that you're…?" I rolled my eyes, getting what he was implying.

"Oh, calm down, I'm _definitely_ not as strong as him," I pushed up my glasses, which slipped down my nose. _I'd get my ass kicked all over the place if I had a contest of strength against some of these guys._ "I just happened to bump into him and we made a deal." I paused. "I told him that his eyes were pretty too." Hiroshi groaned, almost inaudibly.

"You met the most dangerous and deadliest person in this room- who could easily squash you like a gnat - and you told him his _eyes_ were _pretty_."

"Yep." I grinned. "He wasn't all that scary, he gave me a nickname." I felt a shiver of excitement run down my spine. "But he is strong, very strong," I felt my grin widening.

"Why?" Kurapika pressed, wanting to know the answer. "Why would he make a deal with someone he just met?" I shifted my weight and I could feel all of their eyes on me. _Damn it, how does he always know what questions to ask to make me squirm?_

"I, um…" I kicked the ground with my foot and wrung my hands together nervously. Hiroshi narrowed his eyes on me, having already figured out what Hisoka found out. "Uh, he found out that I… um," I stammered, making Leorio roll his eyes.

"Just spit it out already!" He said, gaze sharpening, making me flinch.

 _RINGRINGRINGRINGRINGRINGRINGRING!_

My head shot over to the front, following the sudden noise that had been my saviour, although my ears were bleeding.

 _Saved by the bell, quite literally,_ I sighed in relief, then shot a glare over at Hiroshi, who didn't bother to help me out at all when I was scrambling for an answer. Then again, if he answered it would've looked a little strange.

As we watched, the half-circle cutting off the rest of the tunnel lifted up and revealed a much longer pathway and a man wearing a purple suit. He had neatly combed grey hair and a black moustache, although I couldn't see his mouth. He reminded me of a butler I had once seen at home.

"I apologize for the wait," His voice echoed around the silent room. "The entry period for the Hunter Exam has ended. The Hunter Exam will now begin!" He declared, making several applicants grin and others gripe. Leorio and Gon looked excited, while Kurapika and Hiroshi looked serious and somber. They really were two peas in a pod. Maybe that was why I was so comfortable around Kurapika.

I readjusted my backpack, bouncing on the balls of my feet. I could only hope that it wouldn't be a test of stamina, because I had awful stamina compared to the others in my village. I was fast at recovering it, but I had to carefully gauge my strength each time I was doing drawn-out fights. I remembered Hiroshi taunting me when I was little about being so weak when I had to stop and catch my breath.

"A final caution," He started, looking over the huge crowd of applicants, "If you are short on luck or abilities, you may very well end up seriously injured or dead." I glanced over at Gon, who had a determined look on his face. _I_ **won't** _let that happen._ "Those who accept the risks, please come with me. Otherwise," He gestured to the back of the room, close to where we were standing. "Please exit via the elevator behind you." There was a long silence as everyone looked around, seeing if anyone wanted to leave. "Very well. All 406 applicants will participate in Phase One." He turned and started down the tunnel, robotically swinging his arms and legs up in a ninety-degree angle.

We all started walking down the corridor. I looked around but it all appeared the same no matter how long we walked. I couldn't see an end to the tunnel either. _Damn it, it's definitely a stamina test unless monsters start falling out of the ceiling._

"Of course, no one turned around and left," Leorio said, glancing around at the applicants surrounding us. "I'd hoped a few might withdraw."

"What type of person would make it all the way to the Hunter exam, only to withdraw?" Hiroshi asked, walking beside me calmly.

"I don't know," Leorio mumbled, looking a bit sheepish. "W-What?" The older male started to jog, swinging his briefcase in his right hand.

"The people in front started running," Gon said in reply to his startled noise, stating the obvious.

"He's picked up the pace," Kurapika agreed.

"I believe I have neglected to introduce myself," The purple suited man called down the hallway once again. "I am Satoz, the Phase One examiner." I rolled my eyes. It was kind of obvious that he was the first examiner. "I shall lead you to the Exam's second Phase,"

"Second Phase?" An applicant in front of us asked. "What about Phase One?"

"It's already commenced," Satoz answered, much to the group's confusion. I groaned, hanging my head in despair.

"Oh no, oh gods, no," Kurapika sent me a concerned look.

"Raze?"

 _"It's already started?"_

 _"This is part of the test?"_

"You must follow me to Phase Two," Satoz called over his shoulder. "This is the Exam's First Phase." I let out an even louder groan and got a look of pity from Hiro.

"I'll carry you if it gets really bad," He offered.

 _"Follow you? That's it?"_ The applicant from before asked.

"Yes," Satoz agreed. "I cannot tell you where or when you must arrive. You must follow me."

"I see how it is…" Kurapika said under his breath, having noticed something we didn't.

"This test is weird," Gon hummed, giving me a worried glance, then looking over at Hiroshi. "What's wrong with Raze?"

"Raze doesn't like running," Hiroshi explained, speaking as if I wasn't there. Ass. "Actually, Raze hates physical activity in general. She's a slug-"

"I am not!"

"You'd lay on the ground the entire day if I let you," Hiroshi snorted, prompting me to glare at him. "That's one way you're not like your… Animal counterpart."

"I would not— …Okay, I totally would. " I yawned and he gave me a pointed look. "Shut up, it's noon-ish, so I'm tired!" _If I didn't have to keep up this stupid facade, I would so kick his ass._ Kurapika and Gon chuckled at our banter.

"I expect this is an endurance test," Leorio looked tired already, but he grinned. "Fine by me, I'll be right behind ya'!" Leorio said, getting fired up and leading the rest of us ahead. Noticing something, I slowed down and nudged Kurapika in the side, seeing his face grow somber.

"What'cha thinking about, Pika?" He jolted out of his thoughts. "You okay?"

"Ah, yes, I'm fine," He assured me, making me hum in disbelief. "Thank you, really, I'm fine."

"If you say so."

XXX

Raze took care to take in controlled breaths, starting to get a little tired. Many of the applicants around them had already collapsed or given up and a good chunk of them were almost ready to drop — Leorio included. He'd fallen a bit behind awhile ago with Gon, and Raze discreetly sent Hiroshi to stay behind and make sure he didn't fail. If worst came to worst, she told him to carry Leorio, much to his displeasure.

Hiroshi watched Leorio, sweat rolling down the older man's face. Luckily for Hiroshi, he was the opposite of Raze and had crazy amounts of stamina and strength. He was just as slow as a sloth.

Suddenly, Leorio's face changed from one of exhaustion to one of irritation.

"Hey! Wait up, kid!"

"Hmm?" A white haired boy on a skateboard had rolled past, the wheels clacking smoothly against the cement floor, casually sliding past all of the applicants. He looked a little young to be in the Hunter exam, but Hiroshi supposed Gon was pretty young too.

"You should show the Hunter Exam some respect!" Leorio snapped, waving a fist at him. Hiroshi sighed tiredly.

Why was he stuck with the stupid and oversensitive one? Ever since he joined up with Raze again, it'd been Kurapika- _this_ , Gon- _that_ , go watch Leorio, _"Did you hear what Kurapika said", "he's so smart,"._ Hiroshi sulked internally, a little annoyed that he hadn't been able to talk to Raze very much lately. She always went off with that damn Kurta, probably just because he knew all those stupid facts.

And Hiroshi just missed the entire conversation. Great. Now the kid on the skateboard was running and talking to Gon.

"That was cool!" Gon said, grinning widely at the blue eyed boy.

"I'm Killua,"

"I'm Gon!"

It looked like there was another addition to their happy family. _Wonderful_. _Another_ kid to look after. Well, Gon was okay. He actually took care of himself. The rest of them were idiots.

"Damn it," Leorio hissed beside him, breathing hard. He looked like he could last a little while yet so Hiroshi let him be, but kept an eye on him.

XXX

"I won't… Accept that!" A boy in front of Raze and Kurapika wailed loudly. He was in rather bad shape, if she did say so herself. Now that a good chunk of the applicants were gone, it was easier to see who was left. There were probably a good fifty or so who dropped out - at least.

The boy in front of them dropped his electronics, making Raze dart to the right, a little closer to Kurapika.

"Hey, rookie," The three similarly dressed men she saw in the crowd before slowed down to the boy, who was completely exhausted. "You're a mess!"

"It's rare to see someone run out of steam so quickly," The blue one taunted, the three of them forming a triangle around the black haired boy. Raze frowned but refrained herself from going over and stopping them. He was going to drop out anyway. She took a deep breath and tried not to listen.

"You must be one hell of an incompetent," One snickered, making Raze flinch. She wasn't doing so well at this "not listening" thing.

"People like you are destined to fail the Hunter Exam," The yellow goon said to him. Kurapika didn't look any more pleased that she did, but looked away. Stopping them would do the boy no good. "So don't come back, snot-rag!" The last comment was the one that got him, making him wail again and kneel down, clutching his head in his hands.

Kurapika and Raze passed by him quickly, not saying a word as they went by.

…

"Kurapika," I panted, now starting to have a little trouble keeping up the pace. "How long have we been running?"

"About four hours," He answered shortly, a little more worn out than I was. I shook my head.

"Damn," The pace had been picked up slightly as we went on, but my main problem was sustaining the same speed. If I needed to, I could probably race past all of the applicants and the examiner, but that might lead me into a trap or god knows what else. "I really hope we won't have to run for another five hours, or I'm screwed. I can only keep this up for maybe another three or four," I groaned. _I_ **hate** _running._

XXX

Hiroshi was at the back of the pack with Leorio, watching as he slowly started to fall even further behind. His breathing was ragged, sweat was dripping off his face as he collapsed to his knees, dropping his briefcase.

The purple haired boy stopped beside him, still staying quiet for a moment.

"Hey, old man," Hiroshi broke the silence. "Are you really gonna end it like this?" Leorio glanced up, still breathing hard. "You've come all this way, only to be stopped by a little jog?"

 _"…Screw that…"_ Leorio whispered so quietly, Hiroshi almost missed it. "I'M GONNA BECOME A _HUNTEEEEEERRRRR!"_ He screamed, blasting past the shark-boy at full speed with a sudden burst of power that come from nowhere. _"DAMN IT AAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!"_

Hiroshi stared down the path for a second, then burst into laughter. He was just too easy to lead on. That was all it took to get him to keep running towards a death trap? _I guess he's a bit more interesting than he looks._ Hiroshi shook his head, then something flew past his face two times; the first time a hook, the second time a briefcase.

"Hiroshi!" Gon called, waving his arms wildly. "Hurry up, or you're gonna lose us!" Hiroshi chuckled and started running towards them, thinking that, _maybe_ they weren't as annoying after all.

Just maybe.

XXX

"Are you FREAKING _KIDDING_ me?!" I growled upon seeing the staircase, and Satoz just waltzing up them with ease. "I freaking hate you people, I hate all of you stupid superhuman runners," I griped. "I freaking hate running, I hate it! And all of you are just like, 'Oh, no biggie, only _THREE MILLION_ FRICKEN _STAIRS.'_ ."

"Did you not see all the people who passed out after half an hour? I think that you could be classified as a "Superhuman" runner as you put it—"

"I _hate_ running." Kurapika sighed, realizing that I wasn't going to actually listen to reason, I just wanted to complain. My eyes widened as I looked up ahead of me to the examiner. " _OKAY_ , that is _so_ not fair! You can't just jump up nine steps at a time, that's cheating, you— you cheater! _Argh!"_ Kurapika looked like he wanted to say something, but decided against it. Probably a smart idea.

 _"Hey, hey, you serious?"_

 _"That guy's insane!"_

 _"He's prancing up the stairs as if they didn't exist!"_

 _"If he keeps up this pace, tons of people will fail."_

"See? Other people agree with me too!" The blond beside me rolled his eyes.

"I never said I disagreed with you, I only said that you could also be classified as a "superhuman" runner."

"Kurrraaaaaaa," I said, getting a raised eyebrow in return. Jeez, my voice sounded so whiny and childish; Not gonna make that sound again. "Let's play a game."

"A game?"

"Yeah, like the one where you take the last letter and make it into a new word."

"I believe I've heard about that one," He affirmed, brushing his bangs off his face.

"Flipflops," I said. He responded, eyes showing a flash of amusement.

"Sugar,"

"Ramen,"

"Nexus,"

"Sweet!" Oh, Gon's joined in.

"Tigers," I chirped.

"Silly,"

"Uh, uhm…" The younger boy thought for a minute. "Yellow!"

"Wax!" After I said that, Leorio came up and started making weird noises, ruining the mood. It sounded like he was hacking up a hairball. Oh well, it was difficult to run, think, talk, and regulate my breathing at the same time anyway.

"Leorio, are you okay?" Kurapika huffed after he caught up right beside us. He took his shirt off, but left his tie on and-

 ** _"Oh my god, Leorio,_** _why the_ ** _hell_** _did you pin your pin on your_ ** _chest_** _?"_

"Of course I am, just look at me," He said to Kurapika, ignoring me. They both ignored me. _Rude._ "I realized that I can keep going as long as I don't care about how stupid I look!" Leorio let out what sounded like a war cry and pushed forward again, making Kurapika chuckle.

"What?"

"Oh, nothing," He said, then pulled off his tabard, shoving it in his carrier bag. "You might want to take off that hoodie of yours too, it'll make you overheat." I shook my head, giving him a look. _And be discovered by someone other than Hisoka? No thanks._ "Come to think of it, do you have any other clothes? I don't think I've seen you wear anything other than that hoodie."

"Gon's worn the exact same thing the entire time, and so have you," I pointed out. "Actually, the only one who changed clothes was Hiroshi…" I scanned the area around us and saw Hisoka behind me, who winked and waved his hand at me, gesturing for me to come over. I looked back at Kurapika. "I'm gonna go chat with Hisoka, I'll be right back," I said to him cheerfully. I wasn't about to ignore him since he knew who I was and besides, Hisoka knew I saw him. Kurapika's eyes widened in alarm as I slowed down.

"Raze, that's—!"

"I'll be fine," I waved him off. "Go talk to Leorio for a bit, okay?" Kurapika nodded reluctantly and caught up to Leorio. "Hisoka!" His head turned to look at me, away from whoever who was talking to and smiled creepily.

"Ah, Raspberry-chan~! How nice of you to join us." _Us?_ I looked beside him and saw a person with ash-grey skin and pins stuck all over his face. He looked kinda freaky, although I supposed I had no room to talk. I didn't like him. He smelled like death.

"Doesn't that hurt?" Needleman's eyes slid over to me, making me shudder. I had to restrain myself from hiding behind Hisoka — which probably wouldn't've been a good idea anyway.

"N-N-No," He answered, sounding more like a glitchy robot than human. I stared at him a moment longer before returning my attention to the redhead I had come to see.

"What did you need?" I asked him, mildly annoyed that he had dirt on me. I happened to be a very prideful and stubborn person, so the fact that a mere stranger had figured out who I was, was beyond infuriating. I was barely even known of on this continent!

"Your family specializes in manufacturing knives, books, and gum, correct?" I nodded after a moment's hesitation, deciding that I'd rather humour Hisoka than worry about Needle-man beside me. He probably already knew anyway, thanks to the magician.

"Yeah, we originally started with weaponry, then the instruction manuals turned into a wider variety of books. To increase our profits, we also started selling gum that came along with some of the comics. It's called Raspberry Rubber, I think." Hisoka gave me an approving nod, a sly smile on his face.

"Ah, Raspberry Rubber, listed as the fourth most popular type of gum. It's just three spots under my favourite kind, Bungee Gum." Hisoka shuffled his cards as I hid my confusion. Was he just trying to make small talk, or was there some meaning behind what he was saying? Also, how the _hell_ did he know the stats for _gum?_ I mean, who even _checks_ those? "Tell me, Raspberry-chan, why were you disowned?"

"If you could figure out who I am from just my face, surely you already know what happened."

"Of course," He purred, flashing a queen of hearts at me. "The youngest member of the Kikuchi Concern was always quite sickly, as I heard, and always needed treatment. Your mother, Satchiko Kikuchi, decided to try using new… Untested… Methods of healing him. However, it failed and the youngest child died, leaving the family devastated. The youngest daughter, Rachelle—" I curled my lip in distaste as he whipped out a joker, both from the memory and my "official" name.

"Don't call me that."

"— Was the most affected and was sent to live with a different branch of the family — or so the newspapers said." Hisoka licked his lips, narrowing his eyes at me. "But I doubt that's the whole story. Or am I wrong, Raspberry-chan~?"

"Has anyone ever told you that you're incredibly nosey?" Something akin to annoyance flickered in Hisoka's eyes before it changed back to his typical playful amusement. I'd probably just hit a nerve.

"No need to be rude," Hisoka pouted, sliding his eyes over to a person ahead of us. "No matter, I've no interest in the past anyhow~" _Then why the hell did you ask?_ "I actually called you over for a different reason."

"Oh?" Hisoka dropped the mock offended act and nodded his head in the direction of a small group of men to our right, barely managing to keep up with the pace we were going at.

"I'd like for you to take out some… Pests… For me," He said, flicking his wrist towards them in mild dislike. "You don't have to take out all of them, maybe ten or so~?" A grin flickered across his face. "Leave some for me to toy with." I nodded, my brows furrowing in thought. It was an easy task, considering all they had were spears - long distance weapons. With my knives, I could easily take them out, provided I could get close enough. A hint of a smile graced Hisoka's features as I glanced back at him.

"I love that look," He said, an odd lilt to his voice that made shivers run down my spine. _"Raze~"_ Alarm bells had _nothing_ on the noise that was going off in my head. _Shit, shit, shit, shit. MISSION ABORT!_

"Uh, yeah, that's great," I stammered quickly, not liking how Hisoka was looking at me. It was like a cat drooling over a mouse or a wolf looking at a hunk of raw meat. "I, uh, gotta… Talk to Kurapika! Yeah, gotta talk to him. I'm just gonna…" I gestured to the front awkwardly, speeding up and dashing back over to Leorio, Kurapika, and Hiroshi. Maybe around fifteen minutes had passed since I left.

When I reached the group, Hiroshi immediately commenced scolding me.

"What were you _thinking_?" He asked, eyes flashing in frustration. "You could've been killed!"

"It's not like I had a choice," I argued, scowling at him. "Besides, Hisoka won't kill me yet — probably."

 _"Probably?_ What even happened between you two? _"_ I winced at Hiroshi's look of disbelief and switched to his native language — J'horian —to explain without raising too many questions from Kurapika and Leorio.

 _"Essentially, Hisoka wants me to, ah,_ ** _remove_** _a few applicants,"_ I said, offering a malicious smile, revealing my sharp canines. _"I can't say that I'm disappointed. I've been having the urge to hunt for a while."_ I glanced behind us, noticing an odd, yet familiar smell. It smelled like a snack.

"…I see." Hiroshi didn't look too pleased. _"So if you disappoint him, you'll be—"_ He made quotation marks with his fingers as he spoke. "' ** _Removed'_** _too?"_ I nodded, switching back to Common Language.

"Pretty much." Hiroshi ran a hand through his hair, lightly mussing it.

"Wonderful." Leorio and Kurapika both looked like they wanted to ask us some questions, but out of nowhere, a wild Gon appeared.

"Hi Raze!" He grinned, easily keeping up with the insane pace up the stairs. _Crazy kid._

"Hey," I greeted, offering a small smile back. "Who's that?" I changed the subject, craning my neck to sneak a peek at the boy beside him. The blue eyed boy looked at me just as curiously.

"I'm Killua," The white haired kid introduced slowly, eyeing me cautiously. I grinned at him.

"Raze. Nice to meet'cha!" Killua nodded in acknowledgement, looking like I was only of mild interest to him.

"How old are you?"

"Fifteen or so, a few years older than Gon," I answered, looking him over. Killua was pretty cute, he looked almost like an albino except he had blue eyes, not red. For some reason, he reminded me of a cat. Maybe it was the eyes?

"Hmmm," Killua seemed a little unsure of what to do with me, so I pulled out one of my suckers. Candy always works with kids, right?

"Here, do you want a sucker?" He looked at me warily, then took it hesitantly, seeming to distrust me. Fair enough, it was the Hunter exam after all. Killua stared at it for a moment before shoving it in his pocket. I jumped slightly as Gon suddenly increased his volume.

 _"OH!"_ Gon yelped, eyes wide and waving his arms around. "We forgot about the race!" My ears perked up.

"Race? Can I join you?" Gon nodded enthusiastically.

"Yeah!" Gon turned to Kurapika, who had silently watched the conversation. "See you at the goal, Kurapika!" Kurapika chuckled slightly and nodded, seeming to have no breath to spare. Killua wasn't quite as polite as Gon to Leorio.

"Catch you later, old timer!" Killua smirked at Leorio, who growled at him.

"I'm not old!" He shouted angrily at them. "I'm a teenager, just like you guys!"

"Eh?!"

"No _way_!"

"…Seriously?"

Hiroshi was the only person not surprised by this revelation.

"I hate you guys," Leorio grumbled, glaring at all of us. "You guys are awful friends." I laughed sheepishly, avoiding his eyes.

XXX

"Can you see them?" A partially transparent girl stood calmly on the top of a mountain, a boy looking suspiciously similar to Hiroshi grumbling at her impatiently.

"Yeah, give me a sec," She sighed and frowned, trying to sense something. There was silence for a few minutes before she made a surprised noise. The Hiroshi look-a-like leaned forward cautiously, avoiding a more crumbly section of rock near the edge of the mountain.

"What is it?" The girl let out a small chuckle, a warm smile spreading across her face.

"It looks like those two have made some good friends," The red-haired girl commented, offering her hand to him. He shook his head. "They've successfully made it into the Hunter exam and are participating in the first phase. It seems like they met four other boys and are helping each other through the phase."

"…Are they happy?" The girl opened her eyes and spun on her heel to face him, taking his hand and squeezing it.

"Very. Are you going to report what we found to your father?"

"No, I trust them to take care of themselves, despite whatever "feeling" Father has. Besides, the Gods will decide what to do with them once they get back." The girl giggled and pecked the boy on the cheek, making him flush. "W-What?"

"You're so cute when you try to be cool."

"Shush!"

XXX

 **[A/n]: Well, nothing to say here. Thanks for reading!**

 **[Raze]: F/F if you want, and feel free to drop in a review, they're always appreciated!**


	7. I X Hate X Running! - Part Two!

**A/n]: I'm back with a short and (most likely) boring chapter!**

 **[Raze]: Have I ever told you I hate running?**

 **[A/n]: Multiple times.**

 **[Raze]: I HATE RUNNING. WHY DO I HAVE TO PARTICIPATE IN THIS _STUPID_ THING?**

 **[A/n]: If you hate it that much, just have Hiroshi carry you, I'm sure he could.**

 **[Hiroshi]: Dunno, Raze is pretty heavy. Have you seen how much she eats?**

 **[Raze]: Watch it!**

 **Thanks to farronewp, MonstarCutie, S. , Zonta, Ophelia Elric, animesmile147, Scribleyellow, AkaNeko-chan, StormBringer278, and Kirino Tsuki for F/F!**

 **Reviews~**

 **Isella of the wolf tribe: In a good way, I hope! Thanks for reviewing!**

 **Scribleyellow: Haha, thank you, I'm glad you approve! Thanks for reviewing!**

 _Chapter Seven_

 _I X_ ** _Hate_** _X Running- Part two._

 _XXX_

All around us, people were falling down the stairs or just giving up, dropping on the stairs like flies. It didn't deter Gon and Killua, who were running up the stairs with me as if they weren't even there. I was getting worn out, while they didn't even break a sweat. What kind of crazy endurance did they have?

"I'm impressed that you two can keep up with me," Killua said, glancing over at us. "Well, you look kinda tired, but you're pretty good too," He muttered, referring to me. I grinned as Gon rubbed the back of his head with a pleased looking smile.

"Really?"

"Or maybe it's just that everyone else is too slow," Killua frowned, watching the people we passed by with a disapproving eye. "Man, the Hunter Exam is gonna be a breeze," He complained, head dropping to his chest. "That's no fun."

"Leorio would kill you if he heard you say that," I laughed lightly, catching Killua's blank face. "The old man." I clarified. He "oh"ed.

"Hey, why do you want to become a Hunter?" Gon asked, glancing over at Killua. He still had Leorio's briefcase on the back of his fishing rod.

"Me?" Killua raised his head and looked at the sweet boy. "I'm not really interested in becoming a Hunter," He replied coolly.

"Eh?"

"I heard that the Exam was going to be really hard, so I thought it'd be fun," He looked up at the examiner with a grin. "But this is disappointing." _Yeah, maybe for you. Most people wouldn't even be able to make it this far,_ I thought. "What about you?" Killua turned the question back at the green clothed boy.

"Well, my dad's a Hunter," Gon said, all of us moving to the right to avoid a passed out candidate. "So I want to become a Hunter like my dad." Killua hummed in interest.

"What kind of a Hunter is he?"

"I don't know," Gon responded cheerily, not missing a beat. Killua glanced at him, then started laughing.

"That's kinda weird," He chuckled, shaking his head.

"Really?" I tousled Gon's hair, laughing too.

"That is pretty weird, Gon," I said, jumping over a candidate at my feet and stumbling a little as I landed. The stairs were oddly uneven — most likely from age.

"You want to be like your dad, but you don't know anything about him?" Killua repeated, grinning at him. Gon looked up at the top of the tunnel, a little more serious now.

"I was raised by Mito-san, so I've only seen my dad in pictures," He said, not looking at either of us.

 **"Who's Mito-san?"** Killua and I chorused, making Gon giggle. I grinned at him, earning a huff from the white haired boy.

"Aunt Mito," _That really doesn't explain anything, Gon._

"O-Oh…" Seemed like Killua agreed from the odd look on his face.

"When he was twelve, my dad took the Hunter Exam," Gon continued. "He passed and became a Hunter. Then he left the island. I want to find out why he chose to be a Hunter over being with me." He didn't seem at all bitter about his father not being there for him, which surprised me.

I knew that I was bitter about my parents abandoning me in a town somewhere. _No note, nothing to identify me by except for a stupid song…_ I shook my head, getting rid of the acidic thought. It wasn't going to help me right now.

"Ne, what about you, Raze?"

"Hmm?"

"Why do you wanna be a Hunter?" Gon asked, his warm brown eyes flickering over to meet mine. The image of a pink haired woman invaded my mind without warning, making my heart hammer in my chest. I took a deep breath and tried to shut it out.

"Well, since you answered so honestly, I suppose I can tell you," I said after a moment's debate. "I want to be able to stand on my own and get out of this stupid mess I've gotten myself into."

"Get out of what mess?" I noticed that Killua became unusually quiet all of a sudden. I bit my lip. I didn't really want to talk about my personal problems to people I'd just met, no matter how close I felt to them.

"…Let's just say I've made a horrible mess inside of my family dynamics and I want to make up for it somehow." I pressed my lips together, focusing on the stone stairs beneath me. "Sorry, I'd really rather not talk about it."

"Oh…"

"The exit!" A candidate shouted, pointing upwards. I looked up, and sure enough, a bright light was at the end of the tunnel, not only metaphorically. I grinned, happy to get out of the tunnel and to have an excuse not to talk about my family.

"Looks like story time will have to wait for later," Killua interjected, the three of us sharing a look before I sped up to a chorus of,

"Hey!"

"No fair!"

I may not have had the best amount of stamina but I could run like the wind. I sprinted as fast as I could, feeling the two of them right on my tail— figuratively, of course. I crossed the top of the stairs almost exactly at the same time as the two of them.

 **"Goal!"** They laughed, trotting past me. I let out a groan and flopped onto the pavement, being careful not to land on my backpack. That would be a nasty mess. I needed to get back my stamina before the second phase or else I was going to be doomed no matter what we were supposed to do.

I took in a deep breath of the musty air and twitched. There was that smell again. The smell that made my mouth water and make me yearn to hunt — _…Hunt._ Oh, that's right, I needed to get rid of _those_ guys, or at least a few of them, before we reached the second phase.

"Yay, I won!" Gon pumped his fist victoriously.

"What're you talking about?" Killua argued. "I was faster!"

"Nuh-uh," I raised a finger in the air. "I totally won."

"I was!"

"No, I was!"

"I was faster so you have to buy dinner!"

"Wait, there was a prize involved?" They ignored me.

"No way, I was faster!" We then all proceeded to bicker about who was right until Gon had an idea, bless his soul.

"Ne, Satoz-san, who was faster?" He asked, glancing over at the examiner, who's mouth I still couldn't find.

"I believe all crossed the finish line simultaneously," Satoz answered calmly, gesturing to me as he said his next line. "But he was slightly ahead of you by 0.234 millimetres." I stared at him.

"How did you even know that?" I wondered in awe. "I wish I could do that." I blinked. "Wait, does that mean I won? That doesn't really count if it's only by… Whatever fifth of a centimeter."

"Oh…" Gon looked disappointed and unsure for a moment before his face lit up. "Then I'll buy you dinner!"

"Eh?"

"And you can buy Raze dinner, and he'll buy me dinner!"

"Huh?"

"I don't get it," Killua muttered. I shook my head, not understanding what went on in that head of his.

"Me either," I agreed, staring over at him. I liked his eyes. Actually, I liked everyone's eyes, they were really pretty, especially Gon's. Said boy turned back to face the purple-suited examiner with a smile.

"Satoz-san, is this where the Second Phase of the Exam takes place?"

"No, we still have quite a way to go," He informed us. _More running. Whoop di_ **freaking** _do._

I sat up, now mostly recovered and took in our surroundings.

A thick fog covered most of what I could see, but I could almost make out a forest below us. The vegetation was thick and full, which would make it difficult to run in— I could also hear the death cries of many creatures. The place we came out of was a concrete garage-type building, and we were on top of a plain grassy hill.

Soon, other applicants arrived, being incredibly loud, as humans tended to be. One of their annoying traits along with having the urge to cover everything with plastic, tar, or concrete.

Leorio, Hiroshi and Kurapika showed up probably around twenty minutes after us, the former crawling on his knees and making strange noises again, and the other two just a little out of breath. Actually, Hiroshi was completely fine, which annoyed me to no end. Not really all that surprising.

"Hey, Kurapika!" Gon greeted as the silver-eyed boy walked onto the platform. I was sitting next to Killua, trying to touch his hair. He wasn't too pleased with that.

"Bugger off," Killua snapped, swatting my hand away. I stared at him, trying to make him uncomfortable. "What?"

"Is your hair natural? Or did you dye it?"

"Natural," Killua ran a hand through his hair, wincing as I made puppy-dog eyes. "Fine, you can touch it, just don't mess it up." I grinned triumphantly. He seemed to be making an exception for me since he could already tell I'd bug him until he let me.

 _His hair is really soft,_ I blinked in surprise and absentmindedly started managing his scalp. Oddly enough, Killua didn't seem to mind me doing that, leaning into my hand. _It feels almost like cat fur._ I bit back a laugh, imagining the boy as a cat. I could totally see it.

Gon stood up suddenly, standing on his tip toes.

"What's he doing?" Killua wondered and I shrugged in response. Who knew with Gon?

"The fog's fading," Hiroshi kind of answered, moving around Kurapika and kneeling down to our level. Killua eyed him warily and leaned back into me almost subconsciously. "So he's trying to get a look at where we're going."

"Who're you?" Killua asked, sounding a little rude. Hiroshi glanced at him, looking intrigued. _Cats and fish… Oh dear._

"I'm Hiroshi, Raze's babysitter," He replied, deadpan.

"Hey!" The blue eyed boy jumped when I yelped, looking like he felt trapped between a rock and two sets of teeth. Well, Hiroshi had around three rows of teeth per jaw, but you know what I mean. "You're my best friend, not a babysitter!"

"I might as well be," Hiroshi muttered under his breath.

"Watch it, tuna fish," I said, making him roll his eyes.

"Oh no, what're you gonna do? Hug me?" Hiroshi teased. "You don't even like squashing mosquitos." I wrinkled my nose.

"Because I'll get blood all over my arm, it's yucky,"

"Shhh!" Kurapika hushed us, offering me a hand to get up. "The examiner is starting to speak." I took his hand and stood beside him, sticking out my tongue at Hiroshi and tugging Killua along with me.

"The Numere wetlands, otherwise known as Swindler's Swap," Satoz said, standing in front of the applicants. "We must cross these wetlands to reach Phase Two of the Exam." I looked up and saw a large flock of birds soar across the sky, over the forest, reminding me of a dream I once had. I wanted to fly so high that no one could ever find me — and then there was a talking hippopotamus who wanted to eat my shoes so I suppose it wasn't all that meaningful. "This place is home to many bizarre animals, many of them being cunning, insatiable creatures who deceive humans and prey upon them." _So, essentially humans. Got it._ "Be very careful," He warned. "If you let them fool you… You're dead."

As he spoke, the garage door at the entrance we came out of started to close on an applicant who wailed in despair, silencing the entire group of candidates.

"These wetland creatures will use every trick in the book to fool their prey," Satoz continued, unfazed. He even crossed his arms loosely, showing that he was completely relaxed. Was he that strong that he didn't even need to worry about the forest? "An ecosystem in which creatures obtain food through deceit, hence the name, Swindler's swamp." He turned his back to us quietly. "Stay very close to me so you won't be deceived." I shifted closer to Kurapika nervously. Leorio scoffed, sweat dripping down his face.

"Keh, what a joke," It might've been better if he had just stayed behind, looking at the state he was in. There was no way he was going to make it on his own. "How can they fool us when we're expecting it?"

"You'd be surprised," Hiroshi murmured quietly.

"Don't let him fool you!" A voice shouted to my right, getting all the candidates to turn and look.

"I just said that they can't," Leorio snapped, turning to look as well.

"D-Don't fall for it…" A severely beaten man walked out from behind the wall. "He's lying to you!" He pointed dramatically at Satoz, who didn't so much as blink at the accusation. "He's an impostor, I'm the real examiner!" He pointed at himself, drawing confusion among the candidates, only Gon, Killua, Kurapika, Hiroshi and I staying calm and observing. I suppose there could've been more, but I didn't see anything. It'd be better to listen to what he had to say rather than make a snap decision about the situation.

 _"An imposter?"_

 _"Who is he?"_

 _"I bet you he was gonna lead us to our deaths!"_ The supposed "real" examiner pulled out a dead-looking monkey thing that had the same face as Satoz.

"Look at this!"

"He looks just like Satoz-san!" Gon exclaimed, looking shocked. I had to agree with Gon on that point, the resemblance between the two was striking. Killua narrowed his eyes beside me, almost glaring at the "examiner".

"It's a man-faced ape, one of the creatures that dwell in the Numere Wetlands," He informed the group. Leorio made a face and glanced over at Kurapika who was standing beside me with a pokerface, watching everything that was going on with a calculative eye. "Man-faced apes love the taste of human flesh, however, their limbs are long and thin, so they're quite weak. That's why they disguise themselves as humans. They trick humans into following them into these wetlands, where they team up with other animals to kill and devour them!" He declared as he pointed dramatically (again) at Satoz. _Weak? Uh… He just ran over 40K, buddy._ "He intends to trap every single applicant!" The "real" examiner smirked, Satoz was still straight faced.

"Bastard…" Leorio smirked, glaring at Satoz.

 _"He certainly doesn't walk like a human,"_ Another agreed.

"Morons," I said under my breath, catching the white haired boy's attention. "If he was an ape, he wouldn't have been able to walk/run all this way if his limbs were that weak." Killua snickered.

"Because they're morons, they'll believe anything." I heard the slight sound of cards being shuffled and the next thing I knew, cards were flying towards Satoz and the "examiner", the latter falling over dead after catching them with his vital organs. Satoz, on the other hand, caught them between his fingers, holding them up to show the crowd. I looked over to the source of the cards to see Hisoka shuffling his deck with a grin.

 _Trrrrrrip… Trrrrrrrrrrip…_

I could feel my heart speed up and adrenaline pump through my veins, thinking again, for the third time, how insane I was for actually staying around that dude. _I really hope I don't die from him._

"I see, I see…" He chuckled, tossing the cards between his hands. "That settles it." Hisoka glanced over at Satoz with a smirk. "You're the real one." The supposedly dead monkey blinked, looked at our group, and looked at his partner. Seeing he was dead, it jumped up in fear and started to run for the forest, thinking that it would get away. Hisoka threw a card from his hand towards the creature, killing it instantly. _No mercy, huh._ "Examiners are Hunters selected by the committee to perform this duty without pay. Any Hunter bearing the title we seek would have been able to block that attack." He said. _Really? I thought they would be paid for something like this. By conducting the Hunter Exam, you get to make it easier or more difficult to get rid possible rivals or enemies. I suppose that in itself would be the payment._

"I shall take that as a compliment," Satoz said calmly. "However, should you attack me again- for any reason— I will report you for turning on an examiner and you will be disqualified. Are we clear?"

"Sure," Hisoka glanced over at me and winked while the others turned to watch the vultures that came to shred and eat the corpse left behind. Leorio looked a little put-off.

"Nature can be brutal to watch,"

"So he was a man-faced ape as well," Kurapika murmured, watching. I nodded as Satoz drew our attention once more towards him.

"He was attempting to confuse the applicants and to lure some of them away." Satoz started walking forwards.

"We can't relax our guard, can we?" Killua asked rhetorically, Gon agreeing with him.

"You will be encountering such deception on a regular basis," Satoz walked through the crowd and stopped in the front of the applicants, gazing over at the birds. "I believe that a number of you were fooled into suspecting my identity?" I glanced over at Leorio, who gave me a sheepish smile. "Do you understand? If you lose sight of me in the Numere Wetlands fog, you will never reach the exam's Second phase." _Oh, scary._ "Do bear that in mind. Then, let us be on our way. Please follow me."

Well, there was no way in the seven layers of hell that I was going to fail. If I had to wait another year to take the test, I was screwed. The Hunter licence was my only way out, and there was no chance that I was going to lose it, even if it meant thwarting other people.

XXX

"Another marathon," Leorio growled, looking a little better than before.

"And we're running through marsh this time," Kurapika added. "Running on wet ground requires more energy." I shot a look over to Hiroshi. This was the time we were most likely to be separated, whether it was by accident or on purpose. He grimaced but nodded.

XXX

 **[A/n]: Thanks for reading! Sorry for such a boring chapter but the next one should be more entertaining and up relatively quicker. Good luck to everyone going back to school tomorrow!**


	8. I X Hate X Running! - Part Three!

**Thanks to ThatOneGalWithTheShades, twilightfreak9075, Maerz147051, 93, and FoolYaFool for F/F!**

 **ThatOneGalWithTheShades: Kill you? Nah, it happens! Bits and pieces of their personalities may be similar and their appearances too, but as the story expands, each character will have their own problems and differences between each other. (Considering that there's around 5K stories on here, my OC is probably strikingly similar to someone else's as well!) Thanks for reviewing!**

 **Isella of the wolf tribe: Really? I split that chapter up and it ended up being mainly reactions to cannon stuff. Oh well, I'm glad you liked it :3 Thanks for reading!**

 **Guest: Yes, you're right, thank you very much for pointing that out to me!**

 **KiGaMin (chapter one): Aw, thank you so much! Yeah, the first chapter has a bit of humour, so I'm glad you liked it :3 BTW, your review made me giggle like an idiot when I got it, haha! Thanks for reviewing and I hope you like the rest of the story!**

 **[A/n]: Sorry for being gone so long! Stuff's been happening and whatnot — I've also had killer writer's block, so sorry if the chapter isn't quite up to par. Well, here's some more cannon stuff with some other things mixed in :3**

 _Chapter Eight,_

 _I X Hate X Running— Part Three!_

XXX

"Pay attention now! Be sure to stay close behind me!" I had left Kurapika, Leorio, and Hiroshi behind, moving up towards the two younger boys of our group. I still didn't know how strong they were, so I didn't want to leave them alone.

I could feel Hisoka eyeing me from behind us, only a few meters away from us, reminding me of my task. I'd have to find a way to knock out some of those guys midway through the phase. I'd stay with Gon and Killua just long enough to make sure that they didn't get into anything too bad, and then I'd go off on my own.

"Gon, Raze," Killua said quietly. "Let's move up."

"Okay, we don't want to lose sight of the examiner," Gon concluded cheerily, looking ahead.

"I'm more concerned with increasing the distance between us and Hisoka," Killua said. "Staying too close to him is dangerous. I can smell it in the air."

"Smell?" Gon sniffed the air cutely, giving Killua a puzzled look. "Hmmm… I don't think he smells." I chuckled, amused at him taking everything so literally. _"LEORIO, KURAPIKA!"_ Gon called over his shoulder loudly, startling some of the nearby applicants. _"KILLUA SAYS WE SHOULD MOVE UP!"_

 _"Oi!"_ Killua growled as I chuckled again. "Can't you feel the tension surrounding us?"

"Apparently not," I said, grinning. I enjoyed how Gon had a tendency to completely ignore the mood of different situations. He said he'd been raised on Whale Island, which didn't seem to have that many residents, so it was understandable.

 _"Moron!"_ I heard Leorio shriek. _"If I had the strength, I'd already be there!"_

 _"Don't worry about us!"_ Kurapika shouted back.

 _"OI, HIROSHI, MAKE SURE YOU DON'T LET THOSE TWO DIE OR I'LL KICK YOUR BUTT!"_ There was a groan, then a 'yeah, yeah,'.

"Let's go, Gon, Raze," Killua started to speed up, leaving us behind.

"Wait for me!"

XXX

 _"Goddamn it,_ Raze, why am _I_ always the babysitter," I complained under my breath. "If you want them to live, come make sure they don't die yourself." I could feel my scowl darken in aggravation as the fog thickened again.

"We can't even tell which way we're going," Kurapika said. _No shit, Sherlock. Gods, does he have to point out every single thing? The grass is green! The sky is blue!_ It may be hard to tell, but I was in a _little_ _bit_ of a bad mood from being ditched.

Only a little bit.

"It's okay," Leorio huffed, getting tired already. Even for a human, he seemed weak. "As long as we don't lose sight of the guys ahead of us—"

 _"Stop!"_ I hissed, freezing in place, hearing the footsteps in front of us disappear. I saw a large shape emerge in the fog and jumped in front of the two. Some strawberries started floating around us, but I could see what was _really_ happening.

A man started to walk past blondie but got snatched by what looked like a giant dinosaur, screaming and wailing all the way up.

"W-What?" Leorio stammered. I wasn't going to help him, that wasn't my problem. The black haired man gasped in surprise, seeing the turtle-dinosaur.

"Oh, so you two can finally see it, huh?" I placed a hand on my sword, preparing to fight off the creature. The rest of the applicants started running away screaming — without looking where they were going, I might add. They would just die faster that way. _Idiots._

"This looks bad," Blondie breathed, the two of the going back to back against me.

"Just stay back," I ordered, watching the dinosaurs (?) carefully as they circled us. "As long as you don't do anything stupid like try to attack the- _GODDAMNIT, LEORIO!"_

XXX

"I can hear people screaming all around us," Gon shuddered, jogging alongside Killua.

"Just stay on your guard," Killua warned, not looking back at the black haired boy.

"I wonder if Leorio and Kurapika are okay…" Gon worried, then frowned. "Hey, wait a second, where's Raze?" They both stopped and scanned the area around them.

"I don't see him anywhe-" Killua was interrupted by the ground below them sinking and a giant "Frog-in-waiting" snapping its jaws shut around them.

XXX

"Leorio!" Kurapika seemed to be concerned when Leorio was snatched up by one of the dinosaurs, but he managed not to get eaten thanks to the log he grabbed to attack it with. _Dumbass. They're all dumbasses. Why do I have to deal with these stupid people?_

The dinosaur swung its head from left to right, trying to get rid of the tiny human in its jaws. I drew my katana and jumped, noticing blondie had followed suit, each of us stabbing an eye. He didn't do too much damage since he had wooden weapons but I completely ripped the iris, making it roar in agony and drop Leorio, who would probably live.

Leorio landed on the ground with a _thunk_ — there was a loud moaning sound, so I guessed he was alive.

I hit the ground, landing on my feet.

"You two, run, now!" I barked, slowly backing up with my weapon still poised to attack. "I'll cover you!"

"Thanks!" Leorio ran off first, leaving a hesitant Kurapika behind.

 _"GO!"_ I snapped, my eyes flicking over to him. He nodded and ran after Leorio, letting me take over and deflect the mouth of one who tried to grab him. I slashed one of their strawberries off, making it roar again. _They'll be far enough now that I can go,_ I continued stepping backward before jumping in the air and pushing off one of them, sending me flying off into the direction the two had went.

Hopefully, Raze was okay.

XXX

let out a long sigh, looking down disappointedly at the men lying on the ground in front of me. All I had to do to defeat them was release some of the Alliah pollen and they were down for the count. Due to growing up with it always floating around, I was immune to small amounts of it so I didn't really have to worry about being paralysed. Although, I was feeling kind of dizzy for some reason… Maybe I had released too much.

"Ah~ah, how boring," I whined, nudging the body of a fallen man, spit dribbling out of his mouth. "I thought you guys would put up a bit more of a fight, but I suppose not many people have paralysis resistance." He made a series of pathetic whimpering noises and his eyes rolled around in their sockets, most likely cussing me out in his brain. Or maybe he was just in pain.

I supposed that I should've been a bit more careful so that I didn't actually cause major damage to the nine of them, but I honestly couldn't bring myself to care. They were stupid enough to fall for my trap, so it was their own fault. I was one of the weakest people in my village, so if they couldn't handle me there was no way they would pass the exam.

Rolling my eyes, I turned and jumped, grabbing onto the trunk of a tree with my hands, using my bare feet to propel myself upwards and look for the final man Hisoka had told me to get.

 _Let's see…_ I scanned the area, a grin stretching across my face as I sniffed the air, looking for a nearby human to mess with. _Einnie, minnie, miney, mo,_ I hummed internally, itching to find someone to fight. I could tell someone was tailing me, but they were trying to be discrete. Unfortunately for them, they smelled exactly like my lunch.

I shook the thought out of my head, knowing that I had to get the last man before the end of the phase. I didn't want to see what happened when Hisoka deemed you worthless. _Catch a tiger by the toe… And if he hollers, there's no way in hell I'm lettin' him go._

I leapt from tree branch to tree branch, using my tail as a balance rod. The wood felt nice against my bare feet and it made it far easier to navigate than when I was wearing shoes.

 _Ah, there's my prey,_ I slowed to a stop, eyeing the man who was running around in a panic — understandably so, since I'd just picked off the last of his buddies.

I crouched down low on the branch as he drew near, the hilt of my knives gently sliding forward in my palms case I needed them. _I don't even need to use the proper way to get rid of him. I can just use regular basic combat._

I dropped down behind him, swiftly wrapping my arms around his neck. The man let out a choked gurgle of surprise and started struggling, making me tighten my grip on him. I wasn't that strong, so if he managed to get out of my chokehold (well, it was more like I just cut off their air supply— I didn't actually know how to do it properly. Sucks to be him!) I would actually have to fight, which could go either way.

I hung on tight and stood my ground as he grabbed at my arms desperately as he started to weaken. In a flash of... I'm not sure exactly what came over him, he had the idea to actually use his weapon to stab me in the gut. I jerked away, narrowly missing a lethal injury to my internal organs, getting an awkward gash in my stomach. I could only hope that he hadn't poisoned his blade since that would mean the end of me.

"Son of a bitch," The man faced me warily, rubbing his throat with his free hand, his other still grasping his weapon. "For such a small boy, you're pretty strong." He scanned me up and down, taking in my physique. "Or are you a girl?" He shrugged to himself, shaking it off. "Whichever you are, I'm going to get you back for that, little one. I can't have my boys thinking that I got taken down like the rest of them." _Well, crap._

I shifted into a fighting stance as the man started to circle me, waiting for a chance to attack, hoping that whoever the hell was following me wasn't going to gang up on me. I tucked my chin in, shifting my weight to the balls of my feet and moving one forward, bending my knees slowly to not aggravate him. One thing I'd been taught at the very beginning of my training was that you should _never_ be too eager to rush your opponent. _Oh, Susano, give me strength,_ I prayed, flicking my wrists to get my knives to shift into my palms.

My target must've interpreted that as his cue to attack, as he lunged forward, his leading hand blocking any chance of me knocking the knife out of his hand. I side-stepped to throw him off and grabbed his leading hand with my own, slicing part of his arm before he darted back, opening up the distance between us. I didn't let him get too far, stepping forward and slashing open the area just above his elbow, rendering his weapon arm useless. "Wha-?"

"...I would suggest you give up," I used my leading hand to punch him in the chin, sending him to the ground, ignoring the slight stinging in my hand. I'd accidentally punched him using my second and third knuckle instead of the first two. I might've just screwed up my hand. "I just cut your tendons and hit you hard enough to shake your brain. You're not going to be able to get up for a while, let alone fight anyone."

He gave no response, only gaping at me and his arm in horror.

"W-What the hell are you?"

"Huh?" A breeze fluttered through my hair, making me curse. My hood had fallen off during the fight, making my ears and pupils visible. Even if I didn't have whiskers or paws like the rest of my clan, I was still easily recognizable by my face.

I gave him a forced smile (though it probably looked more like a grimace) and lightly hit the man on the back of the neck where the spine, the skull, and the ear all attached, knocking him out. I checked his body for anything useful, then stood up with a sigh.

"Now…" I purred, tilting my head to the side as I spoke. "What do you want from me, _Furrel?"_

XXX

Raze waited patiently for the boy in white to step out from behind a tree, his grey hair and yellow eyes a startling contrast to the rest of the forest. His wide, round eyes glared at her, still cautiously standing a good few feet away from her. Unlike Raze, his ears weren't round and smooth on the outside, but long and pointed, like an elf.

They stood quietly for a few moments, sizing each other up.

"So," Raze said, breaking the cool, tension-filled silence. "Do you have anything to say to me, or did you just follow me so I could give you an excuse to give up?" Furrel let out a low growl, flashing his long, sharp teeth at her.

"As if," He said, raising his chin arrogantly. "I came to keep an eye on you." Raze looked distinctly unimpressed and promptly turned around, stalking off into the forest. "Oi!"

"Our villages aren't on good enough terms to have someone from your clan watch over me," She scoffed, not waiting for Furrel to catch up. "You probably just noticed me by my scent during the first half of the First Phase and decided to come up with some stupid reason to hinder me." _I doubt he even knows that I ran away from the village without permission._

"I know you're up to something,"

"Bingo, Einstein. I'm trying to get a Hunter licence," Furrel let out another annoyed huff, attempting to keep up with the fast pace she was walking at. Furrel was a good foot shorter than her, so it was difficult for him.

"Why did you just knock out those applicants?"

"Why do you have to be so annoying?"

"Answer me!"

"Nah," Furrel lunged at Raze, drawing his sword in frustration. She leapt upwards, leaving Furrel to cut up the ground. "Well, that wasn't very nice."

"Shut it, Kikuchi!" Raze sighed, shaking her head mockingly.

"Two years younger than me and you still can't even remember my first name. How sad," She taunted, dodging another swing. "Really, you've only had maybe two years of warrior training in the _Sun,_ so you can't be that great with a sword yet — learning how to properly duel with weapons starts in your third year."

"It's been three years!"

"Ah, so you've had about a year of training with that _butter knife,_ possibly less,"

"Why you—!" Raze easily ducked away from Furrel's enraged swinging and continued on her way, not even bothering to try and shake him off.

After around twenty minutes of dodging ravines, Furrel, and various scary looking animals (AKA, gigantic strawberry monsters and some purple wolves), Raze reached a clearing that had a paved path and a gigantic fortress, utterly baffling her. _I was pretty sure nobody would want to live in a place like this, but to each their own, I guess?_

Still ignoring Furrel's constant barrage of interrogation — he'd given up on using his sword because he kept hitting trees with it—, Raze noticed a group of loud footsteps coming from their left, both of them stopping to glance over where the sound was coming from.

 _"I can see it!"_

 _"There's a building up ahead, we must be close!"_

Raze gaped at the gaggle of people dashing toward them, Satoz in the lead and starting to slow down to reach the clearing. Her black eyes wide, she now noticed that there was a bit of a path leading up to the wall.

Satoz - as expected - reached the clearing first and raised an eyebrow at Raze. He eyed her up and down as if she were some type of dangerous specimen.

"Do you know… _It?"_ Satoz emphasized the last word, still staring at her oddly. He then switched over to Furrel before shaking his head slightly. "Hm. Appears not."

"Uh," Raze raised her hand to speak, leaning to the side to look at the considerably smaller group of applicants and deciding to ignore his last comment. "Where are we?" Satoz tilted his head in what she interpreted as confusion.

"We're at Phase two," He answered, looking at me oddly as most of the applicants collapsed to their knees in exhaustion. "Do you mean to say that you were not aware of this fact?" Over to her left, near the wall, she heard a small chuckle from Hisoka.

 _…Did I seriously just manage to get lost and find the next exam site?_

XXX

 **[A/n]: Raze has a horrible sense of direction but it seems like O Fortuna (Lady Luck) was on her side.**

 **[Raze]: That doesn't make any sense at all!**

 **[Furrel]: You're just stupidly lucky to make up for your lack of intelligence.**

 **[Raze]: Whatever, Furry. Thanks for reading!**

 **[Killua]: Feel free to F/F or drop in a review! Both are always appreciated!**


	9. UPDATE

**[A/n]:** Sorry, this isn't an update but I wanted to let you guys know what's going on and why I haven't been updating.

There are several reasons, however, I would _really like to thank all of you guys for all of the support_ 3 I know a couple of you have PMed me and have reviewed asking if I'm alive (lol) and it really made my day, so _thank you_ to all of you, including you silent readers too!

First of all, I have been focusing on one of my other stories because it was... well, it was really bad. I had to reboot it, much like this one. I've been being super careful to watch out for clichés, OPs, and Gary-stus.

Secondly, I've been debating restarting this story again. I've reread what I've written and _*shudders*_. There are a few things I'd like to take out/replace and there are a few aspects of Raze (Such as hiding that she is Demi) and her relationships with the HXH gang that I want to change as well. However, I am also thinking of editing the chapters instead and leaving the story mostly as it is, deleting the parts of it that I absolutely need to take out. _I will make a decision by the end of the month, and your opinions are_ _ **definitely**_ _ **welcome**_ _. Seriously, shoot me a PM or a review, let me know which you would prefer and I will_ _ **absolutely**_ _take that into account before deciding._

Lastly, it's exam/summative season. For those who aren't familiar with the word "summative" it means the final projects that are worth a large portion of our grades. Some are worth 10-20% of my mark. My exams are also right around the corner, so those that follow my other stories know that I haven't been updating as frequently there either. I won't be updating that much until February rolls around ;(

I wanted to keep you guys up to date with what was going on because I'm not sure when the next update will be. The decision will be up on my profile on the last day of January for those of you who want to know what it is. I love you guys!

\- Lizy (^-^)/


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